Working meeting held with Germany’s Federal Government Commissioner for Gas Transit across Ukraine

A working meeting between Alexey Miller, Chairman of the Gazprom Management Committee, and Georg Graf Waldersee, Commissioner of the Federal Government of the Federal Republic of Germany for Gas Transit across Ukraine, took place today in Moscow.

The parties discussed issues related to supplies of Russian natural gas to Europe in the period from January 1, 2020. Ukraine is currently taking steps to integrate the EU’s Third Energy Package into its legislation. To that end, the Ukrainian authorities need to, inter alia, ensure the independence of the national energy regulator and create an independent certified gas transmission operator. It was noted that the operator will have to undertake extensive preparations and substantial time commitments to successfully pass the certification and licensing procedure. In addition, there remains a need to approve an economically sound and transparent gas transmission tariff methodology for the independent operator.

Unless these comprehensive efforts are completed by January 1, 2020, the only option for cooperation in the transitional period will be to extend the effective contract for gas transit adapted to the current market conditions.

Alexey Miller also stressed that Ukraine should first and foremost make a decision on the future amounts of Russian gas to be procured under the direct contract. This will determine the throughput of the gas transmission system that Gazprom will be ready to support in Russian territory in order to supply gas toward Ukraine.