Russia-Ukraine sign gas deal

[Nostalgia]

MOSCOW, Russia (CNN) -- Russia and Ukraine signed a new deal Monday to end a long, bitter dispute that has left many European countries running short of natural gas for weeks.


A waterfall frozen in Croatia by the colder-than-average winter.


The two countries' prime ministers reached an agreement early Sunday morning after five hours of what Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko called "difficult" negotiations.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said the 10-year agreements would "provide long-term, stable and reliable gas deliveries."

Both Putin and Tymoshenko said they hoped the gas crisis would never be repeated and pledged to do everything possible to make sure Europeans start getting gas as quickly as possible.

Tymoshenko and Putin talked for two hours on Monday before the heads of Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz signed the deal several hours behind schedule.

Tymoshenko told the media after her talks with Putin on Sunday that gas exports to Europe will resume as soon as the agreement is signed.

But it could take 24 hours or more for Russian gas to reach Europe via Ukraine's pipeline system due to the distance, experts say.

Ukraine and Russia locked horns at the end of last year over Ukraine's past payments for Russian gas, and failed to agree on the terms for a new contract.

As a result, Russia turned off Ukraine's gas, but promised the supply of gas to Europe through Ukraine would be unaffected.

Despite the guarantee, European supply was brought to a halt nearly two weeks ago, something each side blamed on the other.

The gas shutoff left millions in Europe suffering from shortages in heating and cooking gas during a colder than average winter. Eastern Europe, in particular, is experiencing historic low temperatures this year.

An earlier European Union effort to broker a deal between Russian and Ukrainian gas companies failed to solve the problem. An agreement was signed and the EU agreed to send observers to monitor gas flow, but gas supplies did not resume.

The EU has since called the problem a bilateral one that Russia and Ukraine needed to resolve. The bloc has repeatedly said the longer the dispute drags out, the more damage it does to both nation's credibility and reliability as energy suppliers.

Tymoshenko and Putin Sunday agreed that Russia will give Ukraine a 20 percent discount on the price it charges Europe for gas. In exchange, Ukraine will not hike the fees it charges Russia to transport gas onward to European countries.

Under the deal, Ukraine will pay $360 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas in 2009, and charge Russia a transit rate of $1.7 per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers that it had been paying in 2008. But starting from next year, both countries will switch to the full European market gas prices, both for gas purchases and the transit.

Russia is a major supplier of natural gas to a dozen or more countries in Europe. Much of the supply comes through pipelines across Ukraine.
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The countries that faced the most serious problems were those that import a majority of their gas from Russia.

Lithuania depends on Russia for 85 percent of its gas; Slovakia for 100 percent, and Bulgaria for 90 percent, according to figures compiled in 2006 by the European Council on Foreign Relations.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/01/19/gas.row/

A new price on Russian gas for Ukraine is about $230 for thousand cubic meters. Nobody will say more precisely today. A word «about» is a new know-how of the Ukrainian government, that hides the unwillingness of Julia Volodimirivna to acknowledge that she handed us to Russia.
http://ua-ru-news.blogspot.com/2009/...ssian-gas.html