Naftogaz Hopeful of Follow Up to Winter Gas Package

Naftogaz of Ukraine is hopeful about the prospect of signing another gas deal with Gazprom when the the current “Winter Package” arrangement expires at the end of March.
 
Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev commented: "The trilateral meetings are a vital part of the process to agree conditions for Russian gas supplies to Ukraine after March 2015. Any temporary agreement is expected to be subject to the arbitral award in the on-going arbitration between Naftogaz and Gazprom under the auspices of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce. We thank Vice-President Sefcovic for organizing and supporting the constructive meeting between the parties."

Kobolyev added: “Gas from the EU is currently offered at a lower price than gas from Russia, so from a commercial point of view, it makes more sense to source imports from Europe. That being said, if we can negotiate a satisfactory deal with Gazprom that makes Russian gas financially attractive to us, then we will be interested to source our gas from there as well. From a Naftogaz perspective, any decision we take is based purely on commercial principles”.
 
Naftogaz has made significant strides in its attempts to diversified its gas supplies and reduce dependency on Russia. due in part to regular reverse gas flows, especially from Slovakia. The company reports that in 2013, gas sourced from Russia accounted for 92% of total imports, with Europe accounting for just 8%. In 2014, Europe’s share of gas imports had risen to 26% of the total, with 74% coming from Russia.

According to the national gas transmission system operator Ukrtransgaz, imports from Europe during the first two months of 2015 jumped to  2.3 billion cubic meters from Europe, representing 56% of total imports of 4.1 billion cubic meters of natural gas. The same period in 2014 saw Ukraine importing a similar amount however, the entire volume of gas was imported from Russia.