Ukraine to Restart Russian Imports

Naftogaz Ukrainy is ready to begin purchasing gas from Gazprom in Q1, CEO Andriy Kobolev said at the annual press conference in Kiev January 17.

He said that buying 4-5bn m³ from  Gazprom in 2018 at the price that was reduced by the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce is economically beneficial. But he did not give the start date.

"If everything goes according to the plan and Gazprom does its job implementing the Stockholm court decision, we will start to buy gas," he said. From this year, Naftogaz has to buy that amount of gas from Russia annually following the ruing, having not taken any since late 2015, as it was getting cheaper gas from Europe.

According to the decision of the Stockholm arbitration, Ukraine is obliged to resume the supply of the minimum volumes of gas from Russia in accordance with the provisions of the "take or pay" contract.

The news means a reduction in the arbitrage that importers of Russian gas in Europe have enjoyed for the last two years: now they will have to find another, probably lower-priced home for that gas, although the announced volume still leaves Ukraine the option to import some gas from the west if those companies can still compete with Gazprom.