Russian Federation sending gas to Ukraine

Russian gas giant Gazprom said on Monday it had resumed gas supplies to Ukraine, adding that Moscow had received prepayment of $234 million from Kiev ahead of the winter heating season.

“Ukraine has requested the maximum volume of delivery, at 114 million cubic meters per day, which corresponds to the country’s annual gas imports of 52 billion cubic meters”, Gazprom’s CEO said.

In an interview with Natural Gas Europe, Bryza said that the export of Iranian gas to Europe will take a while.

However, Miller said on October 6 that Gazprom has nearly halved the planned capacity of its Turkish Stream gas pipeline project to 32 billion cubic metres per year from an original capacity of 63 billion cubic metres.

The energy relationship between Ukraine and Russia has been strained since at least 2006, when Ukrainian debt issues prompted Russian energy company Gazprom to cut gas supplies through the country.

The EU Commission has pledged $500 million in aid to Kyiv to help it pay its gas bills and prevent any disruptions in service as the months grow colder. The Kremlin opted to keep prices for Ukraine unchanged from the second quarter, which included a $40 discount per 1,000 cubic meters purchased.

But these reserves could not be enough if the winter is harsh, they warned.

With Russian Federation slipping into recession on the back of lower oil prices and Western sanctions over the insurgency in eastern Ukraine, the economy ministry said Gazprom could produce 414 billion cubic metres of gas this year, an all-time low due to weak demand, among other reasons.

He argued that all Ukrainian activities related to the gas deliveries are determined by political motives and show that Ukraine is an unreliable partner.

Natural gas, Bryza believes, will be a bit more hard because the infrastructure’s not there.