The Minister of Energy of Ukraine Announced His Readiness to Stop the Gas Transit from Russia

The Minister of Energy of Ukraine Oleksiy Orzhel said that the country was ready to stop the transit of Russian gas, as there is a record quantity of gas in Ukrainian underground storage facilities, RBC reports. “If we talk about gas, and I am a direct participant in the negotiations on the signing of a transit deal, we are ready to stop its transit through Ukrainian territory. There is a record quantity of gas in underground Ukrainian gas storages ... But we in no way exclude the priority of signing a gas transit deal,” he said. According to him, in Ukrainian storage facilities there is 21.7 billion cubic meters of gas which is a record quantity. The minister said that Kyiv is actively working with partners from Europe to sign a deal with Gazprom under the new European rules. According to him, according to these principles, Ukraine “cannot be blackmailed.” He added that if Kyiv provides uninterrupted gas transit to Europe, then there should be competition and it is necessary to lower prices for European consumers. In early July, the head of Naftogaz, Andrei Kobolev, announced that in Ukraine there would be a risk of a manmade disaster if its storage facilities did not have 20 billion cubic meters of gas. According to the head of the company, they would allow Ukraine to go through the heating season even if Russia stopped the transit of gas from the beginning of 2020. In the summer, 13.8 cubic meters were in Ukrainian storage facilities of gas. The gas transit deal between Kyiv and Moscow expires at the end of 2019. NewsMaker