From 9:00 GMT, Gazprom halted on Monday the delivery of natural gas to Ukraine because of unpaid bills. The russian company has announced it will deliver gas only if they are paid in advance.
“The decision was taken due to the repeated refusal of Naftogaz company to pay the bill. The debt for Russian supplied gas amounts to 4.458 billion dollars”, Gazprom announced in a statement issued immediately after the cessation of supplies, and published by Russia Today, quoted by economica.net.
Russia announced that it would cease the delivery of natural gas to Ukraine if Kiev does not pay a debt of 1.95 billion dollars until Monday at 06:00 GMT (09:00, GMT, Romania’s time ), according to a statement by the spokesperson of Gazprom, at the end of negotiations in Kiev, resulting in failure.
After the appearance of the news published by Russia Today, information emerged that Gazprom introduced a prepayment system for natural gas to Ukraine. “Gazprom, under the contract in force, passed Naftogaz to a prepayment system for gas deliveries”, says Russian group in a statement. “No payment for June was performed. Starting this day (Monday), Ukrainian Naftogaz receives only the volumes that will be paid”, the group added, without specifying whether the gas supply has been interrupted.
Deliveries of Russian gas to Europe, almost half of which transit through Ukraine, may be affected, as in the previous gas conflicts, in 2006 and 2009. In this context, the Romanian Government gave assurances that the interruption will not affect households and industry in the country.
Ukrainian and EU officials said they still hope to reach a compromise. In Brussels, the European Commission (EC) said in a statement it is “confident” that between Kiev and Moscow an agreement is still possible. “We will try to meet again as soon as possible”, previously announced a European source. “We hope that the economy and common sense will prevail over politics”, said Andrii Kobolev, leader of Naftogaz.
Kiev refused the price increase decided by Moscow after pro-Western leaders gained power in Ukraine in late February, following the removal of pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych. The price of 1,000 cubic meters of gas then increased from 268 to 485 dollars, a price that has no equivalent in Europe. In its “last offer”, Moscow proposed 385 dollars.
Gazprom takes Ukraine to the Arbitration Court in Stockholm
Gazprom may lodge a complaint against Naftogaz at Court of Arbitration in Stockholm in connection with litigation over the amount of 18 billion dollars, announced the head of the Russian company, writes AFP, quoted by Mediafax. Gazprom has already approached this Court on Monday, in a complaint about the gas debt of Ukraine, which reaches 4.5 billion dollars. Immediately afterwards, Naftogaz announced that it has filed a complaint against the Russian group for six billion dollars in unjustified billing.
The second complaint from Gazprom will target 18 billion dollars, unpaid by Naftogaz, said Miller in an interview for Russian channel Rossiya 24. In 2012 and 2013 Naftogaz didn’t pay for all natural gas supplied by Gazprom, according to the contract, he said.