Trilateral Russia – EU – Ukraine Consultations on Russian Gas Transit

Submitted on Tue, 10/29/2019 - 05:52

Press release by the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation

The Minister of Energy of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak, Vice-President of the European Commission Maroš Šefčovič and the Minister of Energy and Ecology of Ukraine Alexey Orzhel held trilateral consultations within the Russian Federation – European Union – Ukraine format on the issue of transit of Russian gas across the territory of Ukraine to European consumers after 2019.

The talks allowed to “compare notes” on implementation of the road map for certification of the Ukrainian gas transport system, as well as to discuss the process of incorporation of EU rules into Ukrainian legislation.

“In the future it will help us better understand the mechanisms of relations after 1 January 2020. We emphasised that Russia is ready to work in accordance with European legislation, and should it be necessary, on the basis of the existing agreement with certain adjustments,” said Alexander Novak.

He added that during the negotiations the parties also discussed the settlement of legal disputes between “Naftogaz” and “Gazprom” companies and direct supplies of Russian gas to Ukrainian consumers, without recurring to reverse flows.

According to the Russian Minister, the participants of the consultations pursued a constructive approach.

“In the near future we will continue contacts on elaborating acceptable rules for interaction between operators of the gas transportation systems of Russia and Ukraine, study the methodology for defining tariffs for gas transportation across the territory of Ukraine and analyse its competitiveness,” explained Alexander Novak.

The next round of consultations within the trilateral Russia – EU – Ukraine format will be held at the end of November 2019.