BRUSSELS - The confirmation and signing of the initialed trilateral gas protocol between the European Commission, Russia and Ukraine will require a separate procedure, European Commission Vice President in charge of Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said at a press conference in the early hours of Saturday.
The protocol stipulates the terms of gas shipments to Ukraine October 2015 through March 2016, he added.
‘We have just initialed trilateral gas agreement for the upcoming winter and comprehensive winter package for 2015-2016. I’m also glad to say that all technical details are agreed and framework is set. Confirmation and the signature would require separate procedures,’ Sefcovic said at the press conference after the trilateral gas talks and the signing of documents.
‘This is crucial step towards ensuring that Ukraine has sufficient gas supplies in the coming winter and there will be no threats to continued, safe and reliable gas transit from Russia to the European Union,’ he said.
‘Concretely, the new winter package consists… of two documents: a protocol initialed by the Ministries of Energy of Ukraine and the Russian Federation and by myself and addendum to the existing commercial contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz, which will ensure the practical implementation of the protocol,’ he added.
‘According to the initialed protocol, Ukrainian side commits to purchase still in October 2 bcm of natural gas from Gazprom for further injections into the storage. The necessary money amounting to approximately $500 million will be provided by the Ukrainian government to Naftogaz and Naftogaz will utilize this amount for the purchase of gas from Gazprom,’ he said.
‘The Russian government commits to lowering the contractual price of natural gas to Ukraine in the fourth quarter of 2015 and in the first quarter of 2016 to a competitive level that is comparable the prices offered to the neighboring European Union countries. This will be done as last winter by the means of decreasing the amount of the export duty on natural gas. I think we have already seen the announcement by the Russian government concerning this discount which should lower the price from the contractual $251 down to $232 (per 1,000 cubic meters),’ he said.
‘The European Commission commits to continue efforts towards mobilizing the necessary financial means from the European and international financial institutions for the gas purchases during the winter period. The object is to mobilize by the end of the year an amount not less than $500 million. And I would like to qualify that the European Commission has played the facilitating role in this regard, not one of providing additional finance,’ he said.
‘I would like to good heartedly thank to our colleagues and partners from the EBRD, EIB, World Bank, IMF, KfW and all other international financial institutions who had been of great help and with whom we’d been cooperating very very closely on mobilizing this financial,’ he said.
