MOSCOW, June 27 (RIA Novosti) - Russian gas giant Gazprom expects Ukrainian purchases of Russian gas to decline in 2014, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) of shareholders Friday.
“The decrease in natural gas deliveries to neighboring countries in 2013 was brought about because of Ukraine’s decreasing consumption. The well-known events in Ukraine give grounds to believe there will be a continuation of this trend," Miller said.
Last year, Gazprom delivered 59.4 billion cubic meters of gas to former Soviet states. The company’s profit for 2013 was 423.5 billion rubles ($12.6 billion), Miller said.
Under the current contract, annual gas supplies from 2010 were fixed at 52 billion cubic meters, of which 80 percent, or 41.6 billion cubic meters, was required to be withdrawn under the “take-or-pay” rule.
Kiev has repeatedly said it does not need that much Russian gas, calling the contract “enslaving.” Ukraine is currently failing to comply with the take-or-pay rule. The country’s state gas company Naftogaz said it bought only 12.9 billion cubic meters from Gazprom last year.
Starting June 16, Gazprom was forced to switch to a prepayment system for Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine after talks on Kiev’s debt repayment and price revisions mediated by EU Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger failed.
Ukraine has refused to cover its unprecedented debt and is no longer receiving gas from Russia, effectively functioning as a transit country in the Russia-EU supply chain.
The Russian gas giant assured European consumers of its gas that flows through Ukraine would not be affected, continuing daily deliveries of 185 million cubic meters intended for the European market.
No comments :
Post a Comment