UKRAINE BELIEVES Russia could restart pumping gas across its territory to the European Union today, after delays to a deal on the deployment of gas monitors appeared to dash hopes of a resumption last night.
The 18 countries which have been affected by the halt in Russian gas supplies had hoped for an end to the crisis yesterday, after EU representatives arrived in Ukraine to oversee the flow of gas and to ensure that none of it was being illegally siphoned off on its way to Europe, as Moscow had claimed.
Their arrival prompted the European Commission to declare that “all the conditions agreed between the leaders of the European Union, Russia and Ukraine are in place for the immediate restart of gas supplies from Russia that are destined for European customers”.
But hopes for a swift resumption dimmed when Gazprom, the Kremlin-controlled energy firm, claimed Ukraine had refused to sign a protocol allowing Russian monitors to join the observation team.
“As soon as the document has been signed . . . and observers are ready for practical work on the gas stations, transit of gas via Ukraine will be possible,” said Gazprom chief Alexei Miller.
Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko announced later that Russian representatives would be able to join 20 EU officials and European gas experts in the monitoring team, and said he expected a resolution today to a crisis that has left hundreds of thousands of people in the Balkans without heat during a bitter cold snap. Mr Yushchenko suggested that Russia would turn the gas taps back on when its prime minister, Vladimir Putin, meets today in Moscow with Mirek Topolanek, his counterpart from the Czech Republic, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.
“We expect the Russian Federation to confirm the renewed supply of natural gas once it starts its work with the [monitoring] mission,” Mr Yushchenko said.
In Kiev, Mr Topolanek said last night that Ukraine and Russia had pledged “to respect the monitoring mission and a reciprocal exchange ”.
“What remains to be done is to fine-tune the technical details and to agree on the signature of a trilateral agreement.”
Gazprom stopped pumping gas to Ukraine on New Year’s Day due to Kiev’s alleged failure to pay its full 2008 gas bill. The company then halted gas exports to the EU via Ukraine in protest at the transit country’s alleged theft of the fuel. Russia says it will only resume gas supply for Ukrainian consumption when cash-strapped Kiev agrees to pay a much higher price than previously for the fuel.
Russia provides one-quarter of the EU’s gas, and 80 per cent of that supply arrives through pipes that cross Ukraine. The reliability of both countries has been questioned during this and previous energy disputes.
The shut-off has forced major factories across eastern Europe to reduce or halt production, prompted many others to switch to other forms of fuel and has left countries which rely almost entirely on Russia for gas – like Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia – in dire straits as night-time temperatures fell to around -15 degrees. In Serbia, officials said heat was returning to thousands of homes after Hungary and Germany pumped gas from their storage tanks to the Balkan nation, which has almost no reserves of its own.
In Bulgaria, dozens of schools were still closed and gas flow to industry was restricted.
As in other Balkan countries, energy firms urged consumers to be sparing in their use of electric heaters, due to the danger of a grid-overload as people tried to stay warm as their gas supply dwindled.