OREANDA-NEWS. November 28, 2014. Prime Minister of Ukraine Arseniy Yatsenyuk expressed hope that the new Parliament would endorse a law on the state of emergency in the energy sector and other laws, "which could finally shed light on the domestic production of gas and oil". The Head of Government said at the session of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

He reminded that nine months before the storages of the NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine had contained 5 billion cubic meters of the so-called buffer gas, "We increased these reserves up to 17 billion cubic meters. Now the low temperatures have forced us to consume 2 billion. That is, we have in storages approximately 15 billion cubic meters of gas".

"It is difficult, but the batteries are kept warm. I told that there would be problems with heating, but we will not freeze. Now I can say that there will be heating, just remain attentive. Gas shouldn’t be wasted," said Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

He noted that the activities carried out by the Government in order to increase tariffs had failed, "In connection with devaluation of the national currency, we could not compensate for the deficit of company Naftogaz. The rates do not correspond to the market prices but gas needs to be paid for at the market price. With this aim we have allotted from this year's budget UAH 103 billion for NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine to buy gas, so that a fare difference would be paid, between that paid by the population and the real cost of gas. Apart from that, out of this sum worth UAH 103 billion we paid USD 1 billion 670 million to repay the debt of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine.

Moreover, according to Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Ukraine has managed to deprive itself of the Russian gas dependence, "Not completely, we recognize it, even Europe cannot completely free itself from Russian gas dependence. But in cooperation with our European and American partners we have replaced by 60% the natural gas deliveries from Russia with gas from the EU member countries”.

The PM explained we had saved USD 500 million by refusing in June the then “persistent Russian proposal regarding a gas price, which included the so-called temporary discount", "The gas we are buying from our European partners is cheaper than gas we had to buy from the Russians. USD 500 million is the sum we should have paid to Russia, but we refused to pay and saved for Ukraine".

Arseniy Yatsenyuk stressed the need to continue diversifying of energy sources, "We are working out this issue with our European and American partners. We plan to increase the volumes of reverse gas supplies, to build new pipelines – the Government has already made a relevant decision – to ensure diversification of energy supplies in Ukraine".

He reminded that a number of deals had been signed with western companies, namely, with StatOil from Norway, as well as German and French companies, "Our policy to diversify energy sources and reduce dependence on Russia proves to be successful and we will continue."

"Apart from that, our Government has managed to make the Parliament to support the law on modernization and operation of the gas transportation system at the third attempt. We have launched a procedure of attracting investors to the Ukrainian GTS, where the state owns its share in a control package, another 49% can be distributed among operator companies or those of our European or American partners only", said the Head of Government.

Another “very good sign” is reduced gas consumption: by 20% as compared with 2013 showings, Arseniy Yatsenyuk informed.

The Government also commenced an energy efficiency program – substitution of gas boilers by boilers using other fuels. This program was launched through the Oshchadbank and the state budget of Ukraine, "In the future, with assistance of our European investors we will finance fuel meters and insulation of homes. And it will provide an opportunity to save more and, accordingly, to reduce dependency".

"The scope of our energy activity is to accelerate production of our own gas and maintain order on our domestic gas and oil market. There is a lot of work to do here," he urged.

"I hope this Parliament will not establish an energy lobby, similar to that in the previous one and which made it impossible for us to adopt a law on introducing a state of emergency in the energy sector. Therefore, the work of this Parliament, comprising 300 supporters of pro-European majority, will yield into approval of not just the mentioned law but all other laws, those that could finally shed light on oil and gas production," emphasized Arseniy Yatsenyuk.