Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko on Jan. 12 accused state energy monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy of concealing the full amount of its gas debt to Russia and of falsely denying that Ukraine is stealing Russian gas exported via Ukrainian pipelines.
Two days after she traveled to Moscow for talks with Russia’s Gasprom chief Rem Vyakhirev, Tymoshenko declared that Ukraine’s gas debt to Russia was in fact more than double the amount Naftogaz says it owes.
She said Naftogas owed a total of $2.23 billion to Gazprom, including fines for late payments. The net debt was $1.741 billion.
‘These figures are not for people with weak nerves,’ Tymoshenko told a press conference.
Tymoshenko also accused Naftogaz of systematically siphoning off gas from a Russian export pipeline that runs through Ukraine’s territory.
Tymoshenko herself headed a large gas trading company, United Energy Systems, in 1995-97, and was a close ally of former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko before he fled to the United States last year to escape charges of stealing millions of dollars from the government.
United Energy Systems enjoyed the exclusive right to supply gas to Ukraine’s industrial regions and was active in the metallurgical sector during Lazarenko’s premiership, but its business power faded after Lazarenko was fired.
Analysts say that Tymoshenko’s latest fight with Naftogaz signals her attempt to increase influence over the lucrative energy sector now that she has won a key post in the newly formed Cabinet of Viktor Yushchenko.
Ukraine, the world’s sixth largest gas consumer, needs about 75 billion cubic meters of gas annually, and imports nearly 55 billion cubic meters of that amount, mostly from Russia. Part of that gas it receives for free as payment for pumping Russian gas to Europe.
The gas debt is one of the main problems dogging ties between the two countries, and tensions began to run high recently after Russian Fuel and Energy Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny accused Ukraine of taking more gas than had been agreed.
Ukraine has denied the allegations, but Russian officials repeated them this week.
‘When they take it, it’s an average of some 100 million cubic meters of gas a day,’ Russian Fuel and Energy Ministry Spokesman Yuri Nogotkov said Jan. 12.
On Jan. 12 alone, Ukraine stole some 92 million cubic meters of gas, Nogotkov said.
According to the ITAR-Tass news agency, Russian officials raised the issue to Tymoshenko during her latest trip to Moscow, but failed to come to an agreement.
Meanwhile, Naftogaz officials defended their own gas debt calculations and denied accusations of gas stealing.
‘The debt of Naftogas Ukrainy for 1997-1999 is $873 million, according to Gazprom documents,’ said a company press release issued Jan. 12.
Naftogaz also claimed to have an official telegram from Kalyuzhny confirming that Ukraine did not siphon off any gas in 1999. The company said that the $2.8 billion figure announced by Tymoshenko was the total debt that included unpaid bills by commercial traders.
