Russia and Ukraine Will Sign a Gas Settlement Agreement

Gazprom will conclude a settlement agreement with the Ukrainian authorities, which stipulates for the remission of new claims, withdrawal from proceedings and payment procedure according to Stockholm arbitration decision. This was announced on Saturday, December 21, by the head of Gazprom Alexei Miller, writes TASS. “In accordance with the protocol on gas cooperation, Gazprom and Naftogaz will sign an agreement on mutual claims settlement under existing contracts, thus balancing the interests of the parties,” Miller said. He added that "the settlement agreement stipulates for the remission of new claims, the recall of arbitration and legal claims with no final decisions, payment procedure based on the final Stockholm arbitration decision." Miller asserts that Gazprom and the Ukrainian government intend to sign a settlement agreement, according to which the claims of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (about UAH 172 billion) will be lifted. He also specified that Gazprom and Naftogaz could consider the possibility of supplying Russian gas to Ukraine with pricing based on the German gas hub NCG. According to Miller, the Russian company will sign an inter-operator agreement with the GTS Operator of Ukraine, while Naftogaz ,will sign a transport agreement to book the capacities of the Ukrainian gas transmission system. Naftogaz will act as the transit organizing company, thereby taking on the risks of the transition period. “The organizing company will reserve transport capacities for five years in the amount of 225 billion cubic meters, including 65 billion cubic meter  -  for 2020, 40 billion cubic meters - for 2021 and subsequent years, subject to the establishment of a competitive tariff, ”said Miller said. Miller noted that the European Commission guarantees the compliance with the EU standards for regulating gas transportation in Ukraine. “The Ukrainian side guarantees the independence of the regulator, protection of the interests of the transit customer, predictability and economic tariff formation feasibility,” the head of Gazprom added. Previously Kiev commented on gas agreements Correspondent