Saturday, September 26, 2015

EU, Ukraine and Russia agree on terms of binding protocol to secure gas supplies for coming winter

The European Commission, the Russian Federation and Ukraine have agreed on the terms of gas deliveries to Ukraine for the upcoming winter period from October 1 until the end of March 2016

The parties initialized the binding protocol on Friday after more than five hours of negotiations, and submitted it to the respective governments for confirmation, as noted in the report.

The document was initialed by Ukraine's Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic.

"We have just initialed the trilateral gas agreement for the upcoming winter. All technical details are agreed and framework is set," Sefcovic said.


Once implemented the Winter Package will lay the ground for smooth gas deliveries from Russia to Ukraine, and consequently also through Ukraine to the European Union, according to Sefcovic.

"The agreement on the terms of the new Winter Package is a crucial step towards ensuring that Ukraine has sufficient gas supplies in the coming winter and that there is no threat to the continued reliable gas transit from Russia to the EU," Sefcovic added.

The new Winter Package consists of two documents: a protocol and an addendum to the existing gas contract between Russian Gazprom and Ukrainian Naftogaz, which will ensure the practical implementation of the protocol.

According to the initialed protocol, Ukrainian side commits to securing natural gas transit through its territory to the EU, including via injecting 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas into underground storage still in October 2015.

The Russian Government commits to lowering the gas price to Ukraine, by means of decreasing the export duty, to a competitive level comparable to the neighbouring EU countries both in the 4th quarter 2015 and in the 1st quarter 2016.

Sefcovic stressed that the European Commission continues its efforts towards organising, through European and international financial institutions, the necessary financing for gas purchases by Ukraine during the winter period, as part of which at least $500 million should be available by the end of this year.

 

 re than five hours of negotiations, and submitted it to the respective governments for confirmation, 

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