Naftogaz: Russia to blame for drop in gas supplies to Europe in February
Ukrainian state oil and gas firm Naftogaz has not tapped since the beginning of 2012 a single cubic meter of natural gas sent by Gazprom for supply to Europe.
Ukrainian state oil and gas firm Naftogaz has not tapped since the beginning of 2012 a single cubic meter of natural gas sent by Gazprom for supply to Europe, the Ukrainian state holding said in a statement on Wednesday.
The company noted that in February 2012, Naftogaz, under the terms of the current contract, it notified Gazprom about the possibility of making additional gas supplies to European consumers at the expense of gas from Ukrainian gas storage facilities.
“If the Russian side turned to us, we could have helped European consumers in the situation with a critical reduction in gas supplies, in the same way as we helped Turkey,” Naftogaz Deputy CEO Vadym Chuprun said.
The press release notes that under the current contract for natural gas supplies between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom, the daily consumption of gas is not recorded by Ukraine, while quarterly amounts of gas supplies are determined.
The state holding said that weather conditions in January-February 2012, when most of Europe and Russia saw anomalously low temperatures, had confirmed the importance of Ukrainian underground storage facilities as an integral part of the Ukrainian gas transport system in order to ensure a reliable and uninterrupted supply of natural gas.
Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Wednesday that Ukraine had tapped Russian gas intended for European consumers at the beginning of this year.
He said that abnormally cold temperatures in Europe had caused European consumers to step up their requests for Russian gas supplies.
“However, a significant amount of Russian gas sent to European consumers never got there. On certain days, up to 40 million cubic meters of gas remained on Ukrainian territory,” Miller said.
He added that “this inflicted financial and reputational damage on Gazprom.”
Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boiko said in early February that Gazprom had been moving less gas to Ukraine’s eastern borders bound for Kyiv and countries in Europe, as provided for in technical agreements with Russia.
Ukraine entered the 2011-2012 heating period with around 20.4 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in underground storage.
At the end of last month, the volume of active gas in Ukrtransgaz storage amounted to about 15 bcm.
With the arrival of severe cold in late January and early February, Ukraine has been pumping more gas out of its underground storage facilities.