Ukraine’s gas talks with Russia finished, deal work continues

KIEV, Dec 30 (PRIME) -- Russia and Ukraine have finished a four-day gas negotiation marathon, Operator of the Gas Pipeline System of Ukraine Sergei Makogon said in a Facebook post on Monday, but work on a transit agreement continues, the company said.

“We have finished an almost 24-hour-per-day, four-day marathon of negotiations with Gazprom in Vienna. I am about to fly to Brussels to solve another important task: a timely signing of an interoperator agreement with Slovakia’s gas transport system operator Eustream, based on the European rules,” Makogon said.

Operator of the Gas Pipeline System of Ukraine said that work on a transit contract between Russia and Ukraine continues.

“We are doing everything we can to ensure uninterruptedness of gas transit through the Ukrainian gas pipeline system to the E.U. from January 1. Our team has completed work on getting a technical agreement with Gazprom today in Vienna and has flown to Brussels to negotiate a similar deal with the Slovakian operator,” the company said.

“Such agreements with the other neighboring operators have also been signed. It is important to understand that this refers to a technical agreement between the operators of the (pipeline) systems, while work on a transit agreement with Naftogaz continues.”

The last round of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine lasted from December 26 until the first hours in the morning of Monday. The representatives of Russia and Ukraine started to sign gas transit documents, Ukraine’s Justice Minister Denis Malyuska said in a Facebook post.

The December 20 gas cooperation protocol between Russia and Ukraine envisages signing of an interoperator transit agreement between Gazprom and Operator of the Gas Pipeline System of Ukraine and an agreement of capacity reserve for 65 billion cubic meters (bcm) in 2020 and 40 bcm per year in 2021–2024 between Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz Ukrainy.

The protocol also envisages settlement of legal disputes between Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy. Gazprom shall pay U.S. $2.9 billion under a ruling by the Stockholm Arbitration court, and Ukraine shall withdraw $7.4 billion antimonopoly claims against Gazprom.

The Russian company made the payment on December 27, and Naftogaz Ukrainy confirmed the receipt. On December 28, the Ukrainian government released a statement, saying that peaceful settlement of the case against Gazprom had been approved.

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