Tomorrow evening Ukrainian delegation will fly to Europe to negotiate gas supplies

Tomorrow evening the Ukrainian delegation will fly to Europe to engage in negotiations with regards to gas supplies from European companies. The head of Board of Naftogaz Ukrainy Andrii Kobolev announced today, June 16, following the Governmental session.

“Ukraine is now offered cheap gas, cheaper than even USD 350, it is USD 320,” Andrii Kobolev said. “They are European companies that own gas resource and are ready to deliver that to Ukraine. It is probably the time to do that”.

At this, he noted, it should better be called not “reverse” but “supplies of gas from Europe”. There is a number of companies that are ready to do that. Presently Naftogaz has been working with two companies – RWE AG from Germany and GDF Suez from France. There are propositions from others as well, similar companies in size, transparency and influence”.

“If a German company can purchase gas at USD 300, it might make sense the German company buys and stores in Ukraine’s storages,” Andrii Kobolev said. “Why should Naftogaz buy gas even at USD 385, if others buy that much cheaper?”

At the same time, the head of Naftogaz emphasized there is the need to reconsider validity of the tariff for gas transit.

“There are several important components there, apart from the proper tariff a crucial component is a “transit or pay” principle, similar to the purchase of gas,” Andrii Kobolev explained. “Hence, apart from the change of tariff level it is significant to introduce the correct tariff structure, which will afford Ukrtransgaz to get a lion’s share of profit irrespective of what amount of gas flows via Ukraine. It is a common European principle, we have raised this topic with Gazprom not once, I hope this time the mentioned issues will be settled as well”.