Gazprom is expected to cut down gas shipments to Ukraine
The Russian leading gas producer Gazprom is expected to cut down shipments of natural gas to its neighboring country Ukraine on 3rd of March. Due to the price disputes which dented the gas supplies to Europe in the year 2006, both the countries confronted on their main energy supplies. At present the Russian gas dominant Gazprom has warned to cut down gas supplies to Ukraine by almost 25 %. This has been done in opposition to the non settlement of 1 billion dollars of gas bills for the previous & present year by Ukraine. It has even claimed that Ukraine has not agreed to sign a treaty for the gas supply for the present year.
On Sunday the 2nd of March spokesperson of Gazprom Mr. Sergei Kupriyanov said that it is still likely that the treaty can be signed by the cut-off date by 10 am in Moscow. However if not then the gas shipments to Ukraine will be cut down to around 25 % on 3rd of March. This disagreement started just three weeks after the Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterpart Victor Yushchenko declared a last-minute declaration to avoid the reduction of gas supplies to Ukraine. Gazprom is one of the largest gas producers which possess several huge pipeline system transporting gas supplies to the whole of Europe.
The handshake treaty between both the countries predicted the elimination of notorious middlemen from the gas deal. This agreement was anticipated to avert the repetition of price disputes in the year 2006 which caused shortage of gas supplies in the European countries. Since then both Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom have failed to sign an agreement subsequent to the presidential settlement. In the month of February, Gazprom newly warned Ukraine to cut down the gas supplies; however both the countries have persisted that the consumers in Europe would not be influenced by this.
On the 1st of March, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Ms. Yulia Tymoshenko expected that Gazprom would not cut down gas supplies in conflict that the obligations were not fulfilled by Ukraine. Yulia Tymoshenko repeated her previous promises to eliminate the murky middlemen businesses from the gas deal between Central Asia, Russia and Ukraine. She called these middlemen as fraud & dishonest and raised the spectrum that these middlemen might have avoided to make the payments to Gazprom. This remains doubtful when an ultimate agreement could be achieved and if it could include additional price rises of gas for Ukraine.
Managing the disagreement is observed as a litmus check for Yulia Tymoshenko who has returned as the prime minister last year subsequent to the strong presentation in the parliamentary elections. The agreement of cutting down gas supply is not observed as a big warning to Ukraine as the demand for gas has lowered since last winter due to the unusual weather. While addressing the journalists, Yulia Tymoshenko said that the government is looking to cut down the wastage of gas consumption in the country that consumes about 70 billion cubic meters of gas annually.
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