MOSCOW: Russia’s Gazprom resumed gas supplies to Ukraine after receiving prepayment of US$234 million from Kiev, assuaging European fears about a new energy crisis ahead of the winter heating season.
The resumption of gas supplies comes as fighting in east Ukraine has largely died down, fuelling hopes that the conflict that has claimed more than 8,000 lives can be resolved.
“Gazprom began supplying gas to Ukraine at 10am today,” Gazprom chief Alexei Miller said in a statement.
Moscow received US$234 million of the US$500 million expected from Kiev, Miller said, adding that Ukraine had requested the delivery of 114 million cubic meters per day, the maximum volume of gas that could be delivered by Gazprom.
Ukraine’s state gas pipeline operator Ukrtransgas declined to comment yesterday but the firm said last week that Kiev was ready to purchase two billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia in October.
Moscow late last month agreed to resume gas supplies to Ukraine after reportedly offering Kiev a rebate, ending months of talks overshadowed by the crisis in eastern Ukraine and fears for Europe’s energy security.
Russian energy minister had said that the price offered was competitive with those for the gas supplied to countries neighboring Ukraine.
In June, Ukraine announced it was suspending all purchases of natural gas from Russia over a price dispute after EU-mediated talks broke down.
Russia supplies around a third of Europe’s gas, with roughly half of it flowing via Ukraine. “This is a resumption of cooperation,” Yury Korolchuk, an analyst with the Institute of Energy Strategies in Kiev, said. He said that 16 billion cubic meters of gas Ukraine currently had in its underground storage facilities were not enough to safely get through the winter.
