Russia, Ukraine to Resume Stalled Gas Talks Tonight in Brussels
Russia and Ukraine will resume talks
on a gas-supply deal with the European Union in Brussels today
after the failure to reach agreement in discussions last night.
The negotiations between Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian counterpart, Yuri Prodan, will restart
at 9 p.m. local time, along with EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger, the European trading bloc said today in a statement.
Novak and OAO Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller
were on route to catch a plane to the Belgian capital after a
meeting in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, said an
official who declined to be named as the gathering was private.
Gazprom declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg.
The EU, dependent on Russian gas piped through Ukraine for
about 15 percent of its supplies, is trying to broker a deal to
avert the threat posed to shipments from a dispute between the
two nations over payments for the fuel and territorial claims.
In Ukraine, clashes between rebels claiming allegiance to Russia
and government forces continued in the east of the country.
“All parties are engaged to avoid any wrong development,”
Oettinger told reporters in Brussels after seven hours of talks
failed to reach a deal on payments by Ukraine for Russian gas.
Money Owed
Gazprom, Russia’s natural-gas export monopoly, is waiting
today for the money that Ukraine owes, said Sergei Kupriyanov, a
spokesman for the Moscow-based company. This month, Gazprom said
Ukraine should settle its debt or pay for gas upfront, with the
threat of being cut off if the money doesn’t arrive by June 10.
Prodan declined to say if Ukraine would start paying today.
Gazprom had already delayed the deadline from June 2 after
receiving $786 million for February and March supplies.
“I asked the company to postpone this with the hope of
reaching an agreement,” Putin said June 6 after a first meeting
with new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in France.
Gazprom and NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy have been at loggerheads
over both debt for past supplies and the level of future prices
since April, when Russia raised prices by 81 percent.
Gazprom rescinded a discount granted in December because of
Ukraine’s mounting debts, while Russia stripped its neighbor of
a 2010 export-duty break that it exchanged for a lease on its
Black Sea fleet’s port in Crimea, which Putin annexed in March.
Ukraine has refused to pay the increased price of $485 per
thousand cubic meters, instead demanding a return to the first-quarter level of $268.50.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Ewa Krukowska in Brussels at
ekrukowska@bloomberg.net;
Elena Mazneva in Moscow at
emazneva@bloomberg.net;
Volodymyr Verbyany in Kyiv at
vverbyany1@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Lars Paulsson at
lpaulsson@bloomberg.net;
Will Kennedy at
wkennedy3@bloomberg.net
Tony Barrett, Reed Landberg
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