OREANDA-NEWS. January 15, 2009. Today at 2.00 another request was sent to the NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy United Dispatching Center (ODU) for the transit of 99.2 million cubic meters of gas per day starting from 10.00 via the Sudja gas metering station. From this amount, 13.9 million cubic meters is intended for customers in Moldova, 63.1 million cubic meters is destined for the Balkans via the Orlovka gas metering station, with 22.2 million cubic meters meant for customers in Slovakia via the Uzhgorod gas metering station.

In response we once again received a note with the refusal to transit gas under the pretext that there was no Technical Agreement on the terms of gas delivery and acceptance at crossborder gas metering stations for 2009. Although the absence of such a technical agreement can’t be a basis for blocking the gas transit via Ukraine given that the existing gas transit contract is valid from 2003 till 2013. In practice, respective technical agreements had been signed by Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrainy at year-end, while in 2007 such an agreement wasn’t signed at all – which nevertheless wasn’t a handicap either for gas transit to Europe, or for gas deliveries to Ukrainian customers. In the current crisis situation the absence of these or other nonobligatory technical documents, which are not part of the contract, can’t serve as a reason for the refusal to transit gas.

In this context OAO Gazprom demands that NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy implements its contractual commitments without delay and accept Russian gas into Ukraine’s gas transmission system for transit to European customers. The gas tap at the export gas trunkline on the Ukrainian territory, past the Sudja gas metering station, remains turned off.

On the Russian territory the gas taps at the Sudja gas metering station at the entry point to the Ukrainian gas transmission system have been open for the third day running, with an operational pressure maintained. This enables to secure gas deliveries to European customers at any moment.