Ukraine halted all natural gas purchases from Gazprom last July after the parties failed to agree on the terms of gas deliveries for the third quarter of 2015. “We’ve received prepayment worth $234 million out of promised $500 million for October from Ukraine’s Naftogaz”.
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Russia’s gas monopoly Gazprom resumed supplies to Ukraine Monday, in a development that will help the country meet its energy needs through the harsh winter months.
“Gazprom began supplying gas to Ukraine at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) today”, Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said in a statement.
“This is a resumption of cooperation”, Yury Korolchuk, an analyst with the Institute of Energy Strategies in Kiev, told AFP.
Almost 75 percent of Turkey’s energy use is derived from outside sources, with Russian Federation alone accounting for one-fifth of Turkey’s energy consumption, more than any other. “This is a huge risk”, he added.
At the same time Gazprom wants to completely bypass Ukraine by 2019 by expanding the Nord Stream pipeline and building the Turkish Stream pipeline in the south. Russian Federation signed recently an agreement with five European companies to increase the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline from Russian Federation to Germany under the Baltic Sea to 110 billion cubic metres per year from as early as 2019.
“Ukraine has requested maximum supplies volumes – 114 mln cubic meters per day, which is in line with Ukraine’s annual gas offtake of 52 bln cubic meters”, he said.
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End-of-year haggling over energy prices had been a familiar problem between Russian Federation and Ukraine but ties collapsed altogether after a popular uprising in Kiev ousted Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych last year.
