REUTERS
The main topic of Monday’s tripartite gas talks in Brussels between representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the EU will be the implementation of the "winter package" gas deal agreed last October, according to Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, spokesperson of Vice-President of the EC in charge of the Energy Union Maroš Šefčovič.
But Itkonen said she could not provide any details about the current situation in the gas disputes between Kyiv and Moscow.
"There were enough complaints from both sides - today they are here, we will discuss [the issue] and look for a solution in order to get the "winter package" implemented until the end of March (when the current gas agreement expires), Itkonen said.
As UNIAN reported earlier, from mid-June 2014 Ukraine stopped importing Russian gas due to uncertainty with supply terms, fuel prices, as well as the mechanism of debts repayment for gas already delivered. In late October the parties negotiated the “Winter Package” protocol signed in Brussels according to which Ukraine agreed to pay (in advance) $378 per 1,000 cubic meters until the end of 2014, and $365 in the first quarter (ending on 31 March) of 2015.
At the same time, Gazprom has been restricting supplies of gas to Ukraine for the last few days. In this regard, Naftogaz Ukrainy has warned Gazprom that it cannot make further advance payments for natural gas without guarantees that the Russian gas monopolist will stick to the Brussels protocol.
The two sides are also rowing over the supply of gas to the parts of Ukraine that have been occupied by Russian-backed militants. Earlier, Gazprom said it would supply the militants with gas and send the bill for the fuel to Kyiv. Later, it said indicated it might approach the issue of supplying gas to the government-controlled and militant-controlled parts of Ukraine separately.
Meanwhile, Kyiv has been trying to diversify its sources of gas supplies, taking “reverse” flows of gas from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary via pipelines that formerly supplied gas in the other direction towards Europe.
Ukraine still supplies half of Russia’s exports of gas to the EU, with the biggest consumers of Russian gas in the EU being Germany and Italy.
However, the war in the east of Ukraine could cause disruption to gas supplies sent via Ukraine, and Russia has turned off the supply to Ukraine before when political tensions between the two states rise – notably in 2009, when a row over pricing, caused Russia to cut supplies to Ukraine, in turn causing a drop-off of supplies to south-eastern Europe in the middle of a winter cold-snap.