REUTERS
The energy minister notes that Ukraine has a solution.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine at its next meeting, before the start of trilateral gas transit talks between Ukraine, EU, and Russia, slated for Sept 19, may approve a new model of Naftogaz unbundling.
"I believe that we have gained good pace and that we will find the right solution even before the trilateral negotiations are held Sept 19. I believe we will present the vision and form of unbundling to the entire market, and I even hope that such a decision will be made as early as the next Cabinet meeting, to show that we have a working solution," said Oleksiy Orzhel, Ukraine's new minister of energy and environmental protection, as he was speaking at the round table on energy security in light of Naftogaz-Gazprom relations.
According to Orzhel, on Wednesday, together with Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk and Finance Minister Oksana Markarova, he discussed a solution on the unbundling model.
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"I think we are on the right track. On Monday, we discussed this with Mr. Sefcovic, today we discussed this with the prime minister," he added.
At the same time, the minister did not specify the exact model set to be applied to Naftogaz.
As UNIAN reported earlier, on Sept 9, Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection Oleksiy Orzhel, together with Naftogaz top managers, held a preliminary meeting in Brussels with members of the European Commission on the transit of Russian gas via Ukraine after 2019 and Naftogaz's unbundling.
Earlier, Vice President of the European Commission Maros Sefcovic said that the trilateral talkson the extension of transit of Russian gas via the territory of Ukraine were scheduled for Sept 19.
UNIAN memo. Unbundling is the separation of natural gas transmission functions (those of a GTS Operator) from production and supply of natural gas and electric energy. It is assumed that effective unbundling will become the key to the formation of an independent operator of the Ukrainian GTS, certified in line with European requirements.
Having such an operator in place will strengthen Ukraine's position and role in the negotiation process with Russia on the extension of gas transit preservation of the Ukrainian gas transmission system after 2019.