Russia's energy minister Viktor Khristenko on Jan 3 warned
against politicizing the Ukrainian-Russian gas row and called for a
return to commercial talks.
"They start blaming Russia for political pressure and blackmail,
but if we look at all these offers that Russia has made...it can't
be considered as pressure," Khristenko told reporters on Jan 3.
"It would be good if European consumers pay attention to the
situation in terms of legal assessment of implementing all the
norms that Ukraine must oblige by, including in accordance with
the Energy Charter that Ukraine has ratified,"
--Russia's energy minister Viktor Khristenko
He referred to the last-minute compromise that Russian president
Vladimir Putin made on Dec 31, offering Ukraine to continue paying
the discounted $50/1,000 cu m until the second quarter of 2006 when
the country must be charged the $230/1,000 cu m that Russia insists
on. Ukraine refused the offer as unacceptable. Supplies to Ukraine
were completely stopped on Jan 1 following the lack of agreements.
The minister admitted that so far no decision to end the bitter
dispute has been made. "All our attempts to offer one, another one
and yet another one variant were not successful," he said. Ukraine
still uses "the take and not pay" scheme, he said. He said
technologically it was impossible to prevent illegal tapping into
export pipelines by Ukraine, but it is possible for Russia to
measure volumes that are stolen. Russia claims that Ukraine has
stolen about 222-mil cu m of gas intended for European customers
over two days of 2006.
Khristenko called for European consumers to pay attention to the
gas dispute. "It would be good if European consumers pay attention
to the situation in terms of legal assessment of implementing all
the norms that Ukraine must oblige by, including in accordance with
the Energy Charter that Ukraine has ratified," he said.
Khristenko also noted the importance of diversifying routes of
gas supplies to Europe and creating schemes of transporting gas via
exterritorial zones.
"The North European gas pipeline is one of real routes to
diversify Russian gas supplies," Khristenko said, referring to a
1,200 km underwater pipeline that is to link the Russian Baltic sea
coast with Germany.
Created on: Jan 3, 2006
Copyright © 2005 - Platts
Please visit:
www.platts.com
Their coverage of energy matters is extensive!!.