LONDON. Aug. 28 - The European Commission and Ukraine have failed to agree on a scheme to finance purchases of Russian gas by Ukraine in the coming heating season, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn has said.
The minister said that the scheme was not agreed to as representatives of banking institutions did not attend the meeting, the BBC has reported.
“We discussed several options, and taking into account the fact that banking institutions that provide cash and liquidity were not present at today’s meeting, it was impossible to agree anything. We discussed several possible options where the European Commission would help us,” Demchyshyn said after a meeting with Vice President of the European Commission for Energy Union Maros Sevcovic.
He said that Ukraine plans to accumulate 19 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storage facilities by the beginning of the heating season.
Sevcovic expressed hope that the trilateral gas agreement between Russia, Ukraine and EU would be signed by late September.
Sevcovic, Demchyshyn, and Naftogaz Ukrainy Head Andriy Kobolev were present at the meeting which was held late on Aug.27.
After a Ukraine-EU bilateral meeting was held in Vienna, Mykhailo Bno-Airiian, head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s Department for European Integration, expressed hope that the winter package on gas supplies will be successfully signed with Russia in September.
“The talks are finished. We talked about the possible coming deal with Russia and the EU (the obliging protocol) on supplies of natural gas to Ukraine for the next heating season for over three hours. We hope that the document will be signed next month,” Bno-Airiian said on Facebook.
He also said that the issue of financing gas pumping to Ukrainian underground storage facilities was discussed separately.
“The European Commission is trying to help us on the issue as much as possible. We can count on large support from international financial organizations in this direction, of course, not without the help of Brussels,” he said.
