MOSCOW, November 15, 17:58 /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine's national oil and gas monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy has stopped the takeaway of natural gas from undergound tank farms and has resumed the purchases of Russian natural gas in line with the effective, Alexei Miller, the CEO of the Russian gas producer GAZPROM told reporters.
As Itar-Tass reported earlier, Naftogaz Ukrainy had an outstanding debt to the previous supplies of gas running into over $ 1.3 billion.
As Itar-Tass reported earlier, Naftogaz Ukrainy had an outstanding debt to the previous supplies of gas running into over $ 1.3 billion.
Gazprom’s Deputy CEO Vitaly Markelov said Thursday Naftogaz Ukrainy had pumped only 17.6 billion cubic meters of gas into the underground tank farms and this amount was too small, calling into question the smoothness of operations during the cold months of 2013 and 2014.
To ensure uninterrupted transits of gas, the Ukrainian corporation should have pumped 21.5 bcm.
“Our Polish partners began to take gas away from storage facilities even before the arrival of the winter and if the takeaway continues at the same rate until cold weather sets in, the amount of gas in Ukrainian tank farms may shrink to about 14 bcm and this will mean a disaster,” Markelov said.
“Transit of Russian gas /via the Ukrainian territory to customers in Europe - Itar-Tass/ will then be impossible in the winter, since there won’t be enough gas in the underground storage facilities to compensate for the takeaways by Ukrainian consumers,” he said.