Russia-Ukraine Gas Talks Fail – Gazprom

Sergey Kupriyanov, the spokesman for Russia’s Gazprom, has said that the latest round of gas talks with Ukrainian national energy company Naftohaz Ukrayiny ended in failure.

The Interfax-Ukraine news agency quoted Kupriyanov as saying after talks with first deputy Naftohaz board chairman Ihor Didenko in Moscow on 8 February: “The meeting has shown that Ukraine is totally unprepared to discuss the essence of this problem. Ihor Didenko was told in detail what Gazprom’s official position is, and the negotiations ended there.”

Didenko flew to Moscow following Kupriyanov’s remarks on 7 February that Gazprom will suspend gas supplies to Ukraine unless it settles a 1.5bn-dollar debt by 11 February (see Vesti TV news channel, Moscow, in Russian 1530 gmt 7 Feb 08).

In a separate report at 1637 gmt on 8 February, Interfax-Ukraine said Gazprom had already started preparations for turning off gas supplies to Ukraine. The agency said it had learnt that Gazprom’s subsidiaries involved in transporting and storing gas have received instructions as to what actions to take “to alter the flow of gas in the Unified System of Gas Supply while limiting gas supplies to consumers in Ukraine”. The agency did not source the information, however.

The steps are to be taken starting from 0700 gmt on 12 February unless Ukraine signs a contract for buying Russian gas in January- February, the agency said. It added that security has been boosted at all of Gazprom’s subsidiaries.

Sources: Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1636 gmt 8 Feb 08Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Kiev, in Russian 1637 gmt 8 Feb 08

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