The European Commission, the Russian Federation and Ukraine have agreed
on the terms of gas deliveries to Ukraine for the upcoming winter period from
October 1 until the end of March 2016
The parties initialized the binding protocol on Friday after more than
five hours of negotiations, and submitted it to the respective governments for
confirmation, as
noted in the report.
The document
was initialed by Ukraine's Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn, Russian Energy
Minister Alexander Novak and Vice-President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic.
"We
have just initialed the trilateral gas agreement for the upcoming winter. All
technical details are agreed and framework is set," Sefcovic said.
Once
implemented the Winter Package will lay the ground for smooth gas deliveries
from Russia to Ukraine, and consequently also through Ukraine to the European
Union, according to Sefcovic.
"The
agreement on the terms of the new Winter Package is a crucial step towards
ensuring that Ukraine has sufficient gas supplies in the coming winter and that
there is no threat to the continued reliable gas transit from Russia to the EU,"
Sefcovic added.
The new
Winter Package consists of two documents: a protocol and an addendum to the
existing gas contract between Russian
Gazprom and Ukrainian Naftogaz, which will
ensure the practical implementation of the protocol.
According to
the initialed protocol, Ukrainian side commits to securing natural gas transit
through its territory to the EU, including via injecting 2 billion cubic meters
of natural gas into underground storage still in October 2015.
The Russian
Government commits to lowering the gas price to Ukraine, by means of decreasing
the export duty, to a competitive level comparable to the neighbouring EU
countries both in the 4th quarter 2015 and in the 1st quarter 2016.
Sefcovic
stressed that the European Commission continues its efforts towards organising,
through European and international financial institutions, the necessary
financing for gas purchases by Ukraine during the winter period, as part of
which at least $500 million should be available by the end of this year.
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