Report: Kiev does not abandon Russian gas altogether

MOSCOW, Nov 26 (PRIME) -- Ukraine does not reject purchases and payments for Russian gas, it only decided to buy natural gas in Europe, because it is cheaper, Andrei Kobolev, CEO of state energy holding Naftogaz Ukrainy, said in an interview to CNN broadcast late on Wednesday.

“Today’s decision has been made on the basis of economic considerations to buy the cheapest gas possible…because we have better options – to buy gas in Europe,” he said.

Naftogaz Ukrainy has more than 10 counteragents who sell gas to the company, and they all buy gas from different sources, he said.

He also said that the possibility of repeat of the 2006 and 2009 crises, when Europe did not received contracted amounts of gas due to difficult relations between Kiev and Moscow, is rather low.

As of Wednesday, the amount of gas stored in Ukraine’s underground facilities contracted by 0.18% on the day to 16.452 billion cubic meters, as seen in data of the GSE association.

The government has ordered Naftogaz Ukrainy to stop purchases of natural gas from Russian gas giant Gazprom. But the company will resume purchases of Russian gas if necessary, depending on consumption and supply on the European market, Kobolev said.

In September, Moscow, Brussels, and Kiev initialed an October–December agreement, under which Ukraine will finance Russian gas purchases with a $500 million aid from the E.U. and Russia will provide a discount of around $20 per 1,000 cubic meters. With the discount, the contracted gas price for the period stands at $227.36 per 1,000 cubic meters.

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