KIEV, February 26. /TASS/. Chief Executive Officer of the Ukrainian oil and gas monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy, Andrei Kobolev, has sent a letter to Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller where he says the Russian company has been supplying only 40% of the amounts of natural gas requested by Naftogaz as of February 22, 2015.
"In violation of provisions of the contract, beginning with February 22, 2015, Gazprom is supplying only 40% of the gas requested and prepaid by Naftogaz," the letter said.
Company officials say Gazprom is obliged to supply all the prepaid amounts of fuel, which stood at 206 million cubic meters and the company planned to take this gas off in the last days of the current months.
Also, Kobolev quoted a technical agreement between the sides, which said supplies of gas via different routes and changes of the points of its entry to Ukrainian territory could be done only upon mutual consent of the two sides.
"Naftogaz has informed Gazprom more than once that the amounts of the fuel delivered to Ukraine cannot be accepted and registered at the Platovo and Prokhorovka gas measuring stations, which are located in the areas swept by combat actions and are out of control for the time being," the letter said.
Kobolev claimed that the pumping of gas through these stations could bring about manmade disasters.
"Gas pumped through Platovo and Prokhorovka cannot be supplied and has never been supplies to Europe," he added.
Kobolev said on Tuesday he hoped to receive an answer from Moscow regarding the gas, which Ukraine had paid in advance for but had not received.
"We haven’t gotten an answer so far but, hopefully, we’ll get it tomorrow or on Thursday or on Friday during trilateral consultations in the final run," he said.
On Monday, Naftogaz Ukrainy accused Russia of violations of the Brussels agreement on gas supplies. The corporation’s press service said Gazprom had been asked to explain for an alleged failure to supply prepaid gas on February 22.
"Instead of the 114 million cubic meters of gas that were requested Gazprom provided only 47 million cubic meters," Naftogaz’s press secretary Alyona Osmolovskaya said.
Gazprom’s CEO Alexei Miller told reports on Wednesday, on his part, deliveries of Russian gas to Ukraine could fully stop in one or two days’ time in the absence of front payment from Ukraine.
"The Ukrainian side didn’t make next front payment on time and amount of prepaid gas that is to be supplies totals 219 million cubic meters only," he said. "Processing of Naftogaz’s payments takes about two days and that’s why delivery of 114 million cubic meters of gas will bring supplies to a full standstill within two days already and this in turn will create risks for the transits of Russian gas to Europe."
Naftogaz’s press service said Naftogaz filed a request on February 19 to pump 114 million cubic meters of gas through the Sudzha, Pisarevka, Sokhranovka, Valuiki, Kobrin, and Mozyr measuring stations. According to supply agreements, Gazprom was obliged to effectuate the supply not later than within two days after it had received the request.
Reserves of gas at Ukraine’s gas storage facilities totaled 8.1 billion cubic meters as of February 23. Computations done by the Fund for National Energy Security say the technological specificity of the pipeline system requires that 6 to 7 billion cubic meters of gas are always kept in the storage facilities.
This means that Naftogaz will be able to take off 1.2 billion cubic meters from there.
