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Gazprom warns Europe about Ukrainian gas transit

14 November 2013, 20:56 CET
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(MOSCOW) - Gazprom warned on Thursday that Ukraine's decision to halt most of its Russian gas imports through the end of the year could disrupt European energy supplies.

Ukraine said this week that its Naftogaz state energy holding had stopped importing natural gas from Gazprom on November 8.

The Ukrainian government said unseasonably warm weather had reduced consumption and allowed Naftogaz to rely on gas supplies it had stored in underground reservoirs.

But Pavel Ozerov of Gazprom's international business department said the decision put Western and Central Europe in peril because Ukraine -- a key gas transit nation -- could be forced to use up gas meant for other countries if weather conditions changed.

"This means that to ensure domestic consumption, Ukraine will need to either rely on domestic production or underground storage, which could have a negative impact on transit," said Pavel Oderov said in a conference call.

Another Gazprom official said that Ukraine this year only pumped 17.6 billion cubic metres of gas into its underground storage facilities.

"And for uninterrupted transit, they should have pumped 21.5 billion cubic metres," Gazprom's management committee deputy chairman Vitaly Markelov told Interfax.

He said Ukraine had already started tapping its underground storage and may be left with only 14 billion cubic metres of gas once the winter sets it.

"That is a catastrophe," Markelov said.

The decision by Naftogaz came about a week after Gazprom slapped Ukraine with a gas bill of nearly $1 billion and threatened to seek prepayments for future deliveries unless the entire debt was paid.


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