BRUSSELS - Marlene Holzner, the spokesperson for European Union Energy Commission Gunther Oettinger, has said that the gas reverse flow is a principle that is part of the European energy community, but not all EU countries can supply gas to Ukraine due to their contractual obligations.
“The [gas] reverse flow is a principle that is part of our energy community … it just means that you can actually transport gas in two directions. And that’s one of the main principles and that should be applied in principle. But what happens then on the ground and if you look into a concrete case is you have to look into the gas contracts,” she said at a briefing on Monday.
“If you have a gas contract between the European community and Gazprom, there are two types of contacts. There is one contact saying you have to deliver a certain amount for a certain price. It needs that, otherwise it’s not legal,” she said. “And you have a second type of contract where it says: this is flexible so in case that the countries need that gas for themselves, they will actually not deliver it.”
Holzner referred to Oettinger, who made a point that one cannot say that “the gas reverse flow is a principle that needs to be applied in all the cases, and if a contract says something different, then of course, in this very concrete case physically it’s not possible to deliver this gas, because according to the contract, one of the parties is not obliged, and this has nothing to do with the principle of the gas reverse flow.”
