Moscow expects to strike an agreement with Kiev on transit of Russian gas through Ukraine by the end of this year, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky said on Thursday
BERLIN (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th May, 2019) Moscow expects to strike an agreement with Kiev on transit of Russian gas through Ukraine by the end of this year, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky said on Thursday.When asked whether the sides would manage to reach an agreement until the nearing expiry of the relevant transit contract in late 2019, Yanovsky told reporters: "Yes. How else can it be? Do we need to negotiate? Yes, we do. We will negotiate till the last."
Yanovsky also stressed that any agreements on the future transit should not be to the detriment of Russian energy giant Gazprom's interests as part of its litigation with Ukraine's Naftogaz.
Gazprom and Naftogaz have been entangled in litigation since June 2014, when Gazprom switched Ukraine to a prepayment scheme, citing its arrears in payments under gas supply contract.
In late February 2018, the Stockholm arbitration partially satisfied Naftogaz claims over Gazprom's alleged failure to supply agreed volumes of gas for transit and ordered Gazprom to pay $4.63 billion to the Ukrainian company. However, taking into account the amount of money previously awarded to Gazprom in relation with the gas supply contract, the mutual offset of liabilities resulted in Gazprom's obligation to pay $2.56 billion.
Ukraine has since been seeking to claim the compensation via Gazprom's asset freezes in Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
