eer.ru
Naftogaz plans to create conditions when it is unprofitable for Gazprom to stop or reduce gas transit from 2020.
Chief Commercial Officer of National Joint-Stock Company Naftogaz of Ukraine Yuriy Vitrenko says the company has intensified talks with Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom on gas transit via Ukrainian territory after the expiry of the current contract in 2019.
"We are negotiating with Gazprom... We have been actively involved in talks on a new transit contract since March," he told a Ukrainian TV channel on April 13.
Read alsoNaftogaz to recover losses through court if Gazprom fails to fulfill gas transit obligations
"The second action is to force by economic means. We tell Gazprom that if there is no [gas] transit via Ukraine after 2019, we will demand that the 2018-2019 transit tariff be increased so that the economic devaluation of Ukraine's gas transmission system [GTS] in the absence of transit and accelerated depreciation have been reimbursed to Naftogaz now," he added.
Vitrenko says if Gazprom wants to cease payments in 2018-2019, then it must either reserve the Ukrainian GTS (from 2020) or allow European gas traders to buy gas on the eastern border of Ukraine with European companies reserving the GTS capacities.
As UNIAN reported, the current transit contract between Ukraine and Gazprom was signed in 2009 for a period of 10 years. After its expiry (from 2020), the Russian monopolist plans to minimize its gas transit through the Ukrainian territory.
In order to preserve transit shipments after 2019, Naftogaz and the government suggested allocating the GTS to a new independent legal entity and attracting a European partner for its management. According to Naftogaz, revenue from gas transit in 2017 totaled $3 billion.
On February 17, 2018, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said more than a dozen international companies had expressed the will to participate in the management of Ukraine's gas transmission system.