Moscow - Gazprom is saying that Ukraine will this winter experience a roughly 30% shortage of gas reserves in underground storage for ensuring the transit of Russian gas to Europe, which will create a catastrophic situation.
“The Ukrainian colleagues, finding themselves in a difficult economic
situation paying gas debts, have completely stopped buying Russian gas
and begun taking gas out of underground storage in western Ukraine,”
deputy Gazprom chief Vitaly Markelov told the press.
“Ukraine’s system of trunk pipelines was set up in the Soviet era as
part of the unified gas-supply system. Gas moves to Europe through
Ukraine in the east and for Ukrainian consumers transit gas is taken, I
emphasize, transit gas with replenishment from underground storage
facilities that are located in the west of Ukraine,” he said.
“The Ukrainian colleagues pumped into underground storage this year
all of only 17.6 billion cubic meters, which is very little. And there
are great risks to [them] getting through the fall-winter period. For
uninterrupted gas transit 21.5 billion cubic meters had to be pumped.
But now the Ukrainian colleagues have begun taking gas out of
underground storage, when the winter period has not yet begun. At such
outtake rates, Ukraine may have around 14 billion cubic meters left in
underground storage when it starts getting cold. That is a catastrophe.
In such conditions, the transit of gas from Russia in winter conditions
is impossible for the reason that the gas in underground storage will
not suffice to compensate for outtake by Ukrainian consumers,” Markelov
said.
“We are getting a squall of calls. Consumers in Europe are worried
about the situation that has developed. Everyone understands the risks.
The situation is serious. We are prepared to look for compromises and
are hoping we will find a solution,” he said.
Gazprom is examining the possibility of giving Naftogaz Ukrainy new
payment extensions for gas deliveries, the head of the Russian gas
giant’s foreign economic department, Pavel Oderov, said during a
conference call for investors.
Ukraine has regularly requested more time to pay for gas since 2012.
“There is unpaid debt for August and October. The question of providing a payment extension is being examined,” Oderov said.
Naftogaz halted gas imports from Gazprom at the beginning of
November. “In fact, this means that domestic production and gas in
underground storage is being used to supply the domestic market,” Oderov
said, adding that gas is needed in Ukraine’s underground storage in
order to ensure uninterrupted transit, which may be jeopardized by
withdrawals for the domestic market.
Deputy CEO Andrei Kruglov said: “As financial people, we see that
Ukraine’s indebtedness is growing and now tops $1.3 billion. And we are
not seeing any change.”
Gazprom has provided a payment extension on Ukraine’s debt for gas delivered in August, at 6% annual interest.
