Gazprom: Winter will be cold, but Ukraine is lying
Gazprom continues to actively pump gas into European underground storage facilities due to forecasts for a cold winter.
Deputy Chairman of the Board of Gazprom PJSC Elena Burmistrova stated this during a press conference in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“We had a fairly warm previous autumn-winter, and there is a possibility that the upcoming one will not be so favorable, it will be colder, then, naturally, the demand for gas will increase significantly. Yes, indeed, we are now actively working to pump our gas into European underground storage facilities, and today the volumes are already 2,5 times higher than last year. And we continue to pump,” she said.
The deputy head of Gazprom noted that the situation with Ukrainian transit is now unclear, and Moscow is awaiting new appointments in the Ukrainian government.
“Today I would not like to highlight specifically the volumes that will flow through the territory of Ukraine in 2020. Firstly, the transit agreement has not yet been signed, and secondly, it will depend on the demand of our European counterparties.
Ukrainian transit is, of course, a rather complex topic now. As you know, a number of meetings took place in the format of consultations, from July 2018 to January 2019, trilateral, in which representatives of Ukraine, the Russian side and the European Commission participated.
So far, no significant agreements have been reached, and we understand that the political situation in Ukraine today is quite complex, we understand that a government must be appointed, changes must occur in parliament and, probably, after this we will return to the issue of discussion, because today, I think it’s no secret to anyone, we don’t understand who to talk to physically, who are the people or organizations with whom we can talk,” Burmistrova emphasized.
The company's lawyer, Sergei Kuznets, also added that Ukraine continues to present its demands regarding the dispute in the Stockholm arbitration.
"Regarding the settlement agreement and the proposal to conclude it, yes, such a proposal was made back during the trilateral consultation held in January 2019. Alexey Borisovich ( Miller, Chairman of the Management Board of PJSC Gazprom – editor's note ) stated that we were prepared to consider the 'zero option' and return to negotiations from scratch.
But the Ukrainian side, the fact is that they stubbornly want to change the format of a possible settlement agreement, they say: “No, this is the decision that was made in our favor, let’s leave it as it is, but let’s give up our future demands and We will conclude a settlement agreement on their basis.”
Well, this reminds me of the joke about Winnie the Pooh, who says: “They sent us 10 oranges equally, I’ve already eaten my 8.”
Therefore, if there is a desire to discuss a settlement agreement on fair, equal terms, of course, we will be happy to discuss it. So far, the conditions for such a discussion simply do not exist.
There is a wonderful counter on the Naftogaz website; they very scrupulously calculate the penalties that we have to pay them, so we kindly use the help of our colleagues.
True, there is also information there that they have allegedly already recovered more than 2 billion US dollars from Gazprom, but this is not true, of course, because they probably mean the amount that the Stockholm arbitration set off based on the results consideration of two disputes.
But I want to say that not a single dollar, not a single euro was recovered, and all arrests are currently suspended. This is precisely why I would like to emphasize the relevance of our proposal to settle the case out of court, because, in my opinion, the Ukrainian side is misleading even representatives of the European Commission,” Kuznets concluded.
Gazprom: Winter will be cold, but Ukraine is lying