Russia resumes Europe gas supply

20/01/2009| IslamWeb

Gazprom, the Russian gas export monopoly, has resumed gas deliveries to Europe through Ukraine, nearly two weeks after deliveries were halted.

 

Boris Sapozhnikov, a Gazprom spokesman, said that the gas flow was restarted around 1030am (0730 GMT) on Tuesday.

 

Officials say it could take 36 hours for gas to reach consumers in Europe.

 

The resumption came a day after Russia and Ukraine signed a 10-year deal ending their dispute of pricing.

 

Price row

 

Russia cut gas shipments to Ukraine on January 1, after a dispute over prices stalled the renewal of a gas agreement between the countries.

 

Russia then halted all gas shipments to Europe via Ukraine on January 7, alleging that Ukraine was siphoning off Europe-bound gas. Many European countries were subsequently left without heating in freezing cold weather.

 

In Moscow on Monday, Yulia Tymoshenko, the Ukrainian prime minister, and Vladimir Putin, her Russian counterpart, agreed a deal ending the price dispute.

 

Tymoshenko said Kiev would pay less than $250 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas in 2009.

 

The office of Ukraine's president criticized the deal, saying it handed victory to Moscow and would damage the Ukrainian economy.

 

Deal criticized

 

Bohdan Sokolovsky, energy adviser to Viktor Yushchenko, the Ukrainian president, said that by agreeing to pay higher rates for Russian gas this year without increasing the amount it charges Russia for gas transit to Europe, Ukraine would be "subsidizing" Gazprom.

 

 

Separately, the deputy leader of Ukraine's leading opposition party, the Regions Party, told Interfax that the deal was a defeat for the Ukrainian government because it would raise gas prices to more than $300 per 1,000 cubic meters.

 

The European Commission has remained cautious over the Ukraine-Russia deal, demanding to know precisely when gas taps will be turned back on, and said monitors would assess the supplies.

 

Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state energy company, has warned it could take up to a day and a half to pump gas to Ukraine's western border once Russia resumes shipments.

 

PHOTO CAPTION

 

Employees at the gas-compressor station Orlovka in the Izmail region, by the Ukraine-Romanian border check pipelines.

 

Al-Jazeera