Also, a possibility is foreseen for it to be prolonged for another ten years. Under the contract, GazProm pledges to pump 65 billion cubic meters of natural gas during the first year and 40 billion in every subsequent year. So, Russian gas deliveries to Europe via the Ukrainian gas pipeline system will continue. And Ukraine retains its status of a transit State.
According to Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection, Oleksiy Orzhel, the negotiating parties have agreed to work in compliance with European laws and methodologies. Naftohaz CEO Yuri Vitrenko said that relevant documents would be signed by the New Year to extend the existing transit deal. “We are going to sign all necessary papers by December 29 to make sure that gas transit will continue from January 1”, Vitrenko noted.
The new transit deal provides for calling back lawsuits which Naftohaz and GazProm may file in the future. At the same time, the Russian party has consented to pay Ukraine by the end of this year almost three billion dollars in cash as it has been ruled by the Stockholm Court of Arbitration.
“The court decision about three billion is clearly stated. As for the decisions about other lawsuits, they will be dropped as the deal specifies. The new version of a gas transit deal provides for the full settlement of all claims of the Ukrainian and Russian sides. There will be no longer open suit complaints from either side after the deal has been implemented”, assured Orzhel.
The Russian side has also confirmed the information about the debt payment to Ukraine. “The settlement arrangement obliges the sides to refuse from filing new claims, to revoke the already existing arbitration and other lawsuits on which no final decisions have been made, and to make the debt payment under the ruling of the Stockholm Arbitration”, said GazProm Head Aleksei Miller.
Ukrainian finance analyst Serhiy Fursa believes that “a compromise involves a situation when both sides are dissatisfied. So, we did manage to reach a true compromise during gas talks with GazProm”. He noted that the Ukrainian side sought a ten-year contract, while Russians insisted on a one-year deal. In the long run, the sides have agreed on five years. It’s something half way along.
In the words of Fursa, Ukraine has finally settled for a lesser volume of gas deliveries. Its initial demand was 60 billion cubic meters per year. But as a result, it got 65 billion during the first year and 40 billion cubic meters for each subsequent year.
“As a matter of fact, Russia has been interested in gas deliveries reduction starting with 2021. And she has got it while Ukraine has departed from her basic demand for 60 billion cubic meters of gas per every contracted year, having satisfied Russia. Not in full of course, but again something in the middle”, commented the analyst.
The cost of gas transit has not been announced yet. A peculiar situation arises. On the one hand, Ukraine gets three billion dollars, and on the other hand, she refuses from getting much bigger sums.
And Fursa sums up, “The key result is there will be no gas war. Now, all can go on holiday”.
The newspaper Holos Ukrainy
