Naftogaz to hold talks with Gazprom in March

NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine expects to hold talks with Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, including regarding the implementation of the Stockholm Arbitration award, the company press service wrote on Facebook.

"By the end of the month, a "meeting on the Elbe"(or some other beautiful river) is to take place with our dear monopoly," the report said.

According to the report, Naftogaz will inform Gazprom at the meeting that Ukraine does not agree to cancel gas contracts.

"In addition, we sent to Gazprom our requests to review [gas transit] tariffs. At the meeting, of course, the implementation of arbitration awards will be discussed," the press service quoted Naftogaz CCO Yuriy Vitrenko as saying.

Read alsoNaftogaz expects to recover from Russia $8 bln over assets seized in CrimeaAs UNIAN reported earlier, after Gazprom lost a gas dispute with Naftogaz at the Stockholm Arbitration, being obliged to pay the Ukrainian company $2.56 billion, the Russian monopoly first agreed to deliver to Ukraine in March a total of 500 million cubic meters of gas at prices determined by court, but then (on March 1, just 15 minutes before the expected start of supply) suddenly refused to fulfill its contractual obligations and lowered to a critical level the pressure at the entrance to the Ukrainian GTS.

Naftogaz called such actions by Gazprom a failure to fulfill the court's award and blamed the Russian company for gas shortage in Ukraine's GTS. To overcome the crisis, the Cabinet of Ministers on March 2 introduced a five-day national action plan to prevent a crisis in the energy sector, which provided for a restriction on gas consumption within the country, while Naftogaz made an emergency purchase of 60 million cubic meters from the Polish company PGNiG.

Read alsoMogherini: Gazprom must respect its contractual obligationsAccording to President Poroshenko, thanks to the efforts by Naftogaz and the Cabinet of Ministers, the country will complete the heating period without any emergencies. He also stressed that Gazprom would pay "every single penny" under the Stockholm Arbitration's award.

In 2017, Ukraine topped its record of recent years in the volumes of gas transmitted from Russia to the European Union at 93 billion cubic meters.