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Russia-Ukraine gas dispute

Naftogaz finds Ukrainian energy minister’s no show at Berlin gas talks ‘logical’

The only thing agreed on at Tuesday's trilateral gas consultations in Berlin was that the next ministerial meeting would be held in October

© Zurab Javakhadze/TASS

KIEV, July 18. /TASS/. Kiev’s decision to delegate Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin to the trilateral gas talks in Berlin rather than the country’s Minister of Coal and Energy Igor Nasalik, was greenlighted by the government and connected to the allocation of responsibilities pursuant to the EU Association Agreement, Naftogaz of Ukraine’s Director of Business Development Yuri Vitrenko told TASS on Wednesday.

"That was a decision by the cabinet of ministers. But it was logical, particularly considering the fact that the Foreign Ministry is involved in the issues on the Association Agreement (with the EU)," he said when asked about the reason for Nasalik’s absence.

Vitrenko see no revisions on the horizon prior to this autumn’s upcoming talks. "Nothing is going to change until that time," he stressed.

On Tuesday, representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the European Union (EU) convened in Germany’s capital of Berlin for a meeting to discuss the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory. Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, European Commission’s (EC) Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavel Klimkin participated in the talks. Gazprom and Naftogaz CEOs, Alexei Miller and Andrei Kobolev, also attended the gas summit.

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Russia ready to extend current contract on gas transit via Ukraine — energy minister

The Ukrainian top diplomat is heading Kiev’s delegation to the Berlin talks as the leadership of Ukraine’s Energy and Coal Mining Ministry has been virtually blocked from supervising the country’s oil and gas industry, Valentin Zemlyansky, an energy expert and former head of Naftogaz’s public relations department, told TASS.

"The Energy Ministry has been practically suspended from the process of the oil and gas sector’s management as of today. The minister’s powers are close to nil. Moreover, the meeting (the preliminary trilateral consultations - TASS) was purely a consultative and diplomatic one," he said.

Zemlyansky added that it made no difference who would head the delegation since "it became clear in the beginning that no principal decisions would follow."

The only thing agreed on at Tuesday's trilateral gas consultations in Berlin was that the next ministerial meeting would be held in October. The parties intend to hash over potential volumes of Russian gas transit via Ukraine to Europe, the rate of the transit and the relationship between Gazprom and Naftogaz in further detail.

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Russia-Ukraine Gas Dispute

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