RUSSIA - POLICY Intermediaries axed as details unveiled from Russia-Ukraine deal.

摘要

Ukraine averted a gas-shut off yesterday after Russian president Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yushchenko reached a last-minute deal in principle to settle the Ukrainian debt to Gazprom (see Gas Matters Today, February, 12). Gazprom had threatened to cut gas supplies sourced from Russia at 3pm GMT yesterday if Naftogaz Ukrainy, Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas company, did not agree to pay the debt it accured since October 2007 when Gazprom began supplying Ukraine with extra gas following a lag in Central Asian gas supplies. Ukraine had previously claimed that they had only consumed Turkmen gas from its underground storage facilities and did not receive any Russian gas from the pipeline system.