KIEV, August 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukrainian national energy company Naftogaz head Andrey Kobelev argued on Wednesday that European consumers would get safe gas transit, if the Russian gas sale point was moved from the western border of Ukraine to Russia’s western border.

“The purchase of Russian natural gas on Ukraine’s border with Russia will enable European gas companies to use their gas already on the territory of Ukraine, including a possibility to use considerable capacities of underground storage facilities in the west of our state,” the Naftogaz press office quoted Kobelev as saying.

In turn, Ukraine will get “direct connection with European gas network operators,” Kobelev argued.

The Naftogaz head said that the adoption of a package of sanctions by the Ukrainian parliament against Russia “will not mean an immediate imposition of sanctions against any persons, including against Gazprom, because the law only creates a legal framework for the use of sanctions.”

Naftogaz also said in a statement that the transfer of the gas purchase point for European companies to Russia’s western border “will help both offset a potential risk of the imposition of sanctions and bring gas transit contracts into compliance with the EU’s Third Energy Package.”

Naftogaz said that a probability remained in the current situation for the emergence of problems for gas transit to EU countries.

Naftogaz said, in particular, that the cancellation of a contract on gas balancing between Ukraine’s Ukrtransgaz and Russia’s Gazprom Export on the Russian initiative on June 17 “makes it impossible for Gazprom to use gas from Ukrainian gas storage facilities to cover EU peak consumption.”

“Secondly, the absence of direct interconnection agreements between Ukrtransgaz and transport system operators in neighboring countries excludes standard gas balancing during gas transit,” Naftogaz said.

Naftogaz “considers it necessary to warn European partners of possible risks and proposes solving the problem by joint efforts through three-party negotiations in the Ukraine-EU-Russia format,” the Ukrainian energy company said.