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Hope for Russian gas supply agreement
Source: Agencies |
January 10, 2009, Saturday
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Print Edition
RUSSIA'S Gazprom said it could restart gas shipments to Europe immediately if an agreement can be signed allowing an EU-led monitoring mission to track gas flows through Ukrainian pipelines.
EU monitors arrived yesterday in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, but Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said a final agreement on their deployment had yet to be signed.
Gazprom halted all natural gas shipments through Ukraine on Wednesday, ending or reducing gas supplies to more than a dozen European nations, amid a pricing dispute with Kiev.
Yesterday Miller pledged Gazprom would resume shipments to Europe once EU and Russian monitors were in place at pipeline pumping stations across Ukraine -- a country roughly the size of South Africa or Texas. The EU said it could then take days for the shipments to reach western Europe.
But as Russian and Ukrainian officials traded new accusations, doubts emerged about whether the monitoring deal could be inked quickly.
Miller accused Ukraine of creating obstacles to the deal, saying "Ukraine is afraid of creating such a (monitoring) mechanism."
"If it's created, our Ukrainian colleagues will have to work in an open and transparent way, and they very much dislike it," Miller said during a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the southern Russian city of Sochi.
Ukraine's state company Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said Russia was the one dragging its feet on the deal.
"They are just wasting time, trying to make this process as long as possible," Zemlyansky told The Associated Press.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU presidency, was traveling in Kiev to help wrap up the monitoring deal.
"The mission is sensitive. Both sides want to save face," Topolanek said before departing from Prague. "I'm a bit optimistic, but don't expect me to give any assurance that it will be definitely solved today."
The halt in gas supplies has left European nations struggling to cope during a harsh winter.
EU monitors arrived yesterday in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, but Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said a final agreement on their deployment had yet to be signed.
Gazprom halted all natural gas shipments through Ukraine on Wednesday, ending or reducing gas supplies to more than a dozen European nations, amid a pricing dispute with Kiev.
Yesterday Miller pledged Gazprom would resume shipments to Europe once EU and Russian monitors were in place at pipeline pumping stations across Ukraine -- a country roughly the size of South Africa or Texas. The EU said it could then take days for the shipments to reach western Europe.
But as Russian and Ukrainian officials traded new accusations, doubts emerged about whether the monitoring deal could be inked quickly.
Miller accused Ukraine of creating obstacles to the deal, saying "Ukraine is afraid of creating such a (monitoring) mechanism."
"If it's created, our Ukrainian colleagues will have to work in an open and transparent way, and they very much dislike it," Miller said during a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in the southern Russian city of Sochi.
Ukraine's state company Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said Russia was the one dragging its feet on the deal.
"They are just wasting time, trying to make this process as long as possible," Zemlyansky told The Associated Press.
Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, whose country holds the EU presidency, was traveling in Kiev to help wrap up the monitoring deal.
"The mission is sensitive. Both sides want to save face," Topolanek said before departing from Prague. "I'm a bit optimistic, but don't expect me to give any assurance that it will be definitely solved today."
The halt in gas supplies has left European nations struggling to cope during a harsh winter.
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