bykvu.com
The Russian monopoly has accused Ukraine of “breaking the balance in relations.”
Russia is demanding that the Ukrainian side give up on its win international arbitration regarding gas contracts with Gazprom in exchange for extending gas transit contracts, that's according to Naftogaz COO Yuriy Vitrenko.
In a Facebook posting, he recalled that the gas transit contract between Naftogaz and Gazprom would expire this year.
Trilateral negotiations (Ukraine-Russia-EU) at the political level will be held January 21.
“Gazprom has officially announced that the arbitration decision 'broke the balance in relations.' That is, the Ukrainian side needs to abandon its win in arbitration," wrote Vitrenko.
According to him, Russia wants Ukraine’s transit fee to equal only a relatively small discount from payments for Russian gas that Ukraine has to buy." That is, Ukraine should pay Russia for gas six times more than Ukraine gets for transit. Money should go from Ukraine to Russia, not vice versa. This is precisely the 'acceptable balance in relations for Russia, which they want to restore," the official explained.
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He noted that a victory in an international court allowed Ukraine to save $77 billion for the period of 2012–2018.
“Without winning the arbitration on the gas supply contract and the transit contract today, we would have to pay Gazprom more than $73 billion in take-or-pay obligations for 2012–2018 and about $4 billion for gas delivered in 2014-2015. We would have to buy gas from Gazprom at a price higher than that at which we buy gas from Europe," explained Vitrenko.
According to the official, the contracts terminated in international arbitration provided that Russia would annually receive for gas sold $12 billion more than it would pay for transit.
Earlier, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev said that the company had sued Gazprom over a potential loss in the cost of the Ukrainian gas transmission system due to the construction of bypass pipes by Russia.
At the same time, he said that, if Gazprom signs a long-term gas transit contract with Ukraine in line with EU legislation, with payment guarantees, Naftogaz will give up on its claim regarding the previous gas transit contract.