Gazprom threatens Kyiv with $2.6bn gas bill
Today PJSC Gazprom has sent a bill to NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine requesting payments.
Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz refused to import Russian gas from mid-summer past year amid mounting tension between the two countries.
Earlier on Tuesday, Gazprom drew a $2.549 bln bill to Naftogaz of Ukraine for the Russian gas Ukraine had not taken in the third quarter of 2015 under “take or pay” condition.
The change means that Russia’s Gazprom now must pay Ukraine USD 7.9 to carry 1,000 cubic meters of gas along a distance of 100 km of Ukrainian pipelines.
Gazprom expects the payment be conducted within ten days, as emphasized in the statement.
“Ukraine effectively decided against buying Russian gas in the third quarter, and there were no agreements to waive the take or pay requirement for the period”, said Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller.
Ukraine, once one of Russia’s biggest foreign gas buyers, had a debtof more than $29 billion before Tuesday’s bill, according to Gazprom. Ukraine, which supplies more than 10 percent of the EU’s gas through its territory from Russian Federation, halted imports from Gazprom twice a year ago over the pricing dispute. Naftogaz substantiated its claims and filed lawsuits with the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce regarding a contract for the supply of gas in January 2015. Since the start of 2016 the price of transit is being set by Ukraine’s state -run energy regulator on the basis of expenditures incurred by Ukrainian gas transmission company Ukrtransgaz, with the impact of gas price on the price of transit being considerably reduced.