Moscow readies for crucial summit on gas dispute

13:03 | 17/ 01/ 2009

MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) – Representatives of countries
consuming and transiting Russian natural gas gather on Saturday in
Moscow as efforts intensify to resolve the gas dispute between Russia
and Ukraine.

The summit was proposed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on
Wednesday at an emergency meeting with the prime ministers of Bulgaria,
Slovakia and Moldova, among the countries worst-hit by the cut in
Russian gas deliveries via Ukraine, which were halted on January 7.

An EU-brokered deal signed on Monday to have transits restarted has not
been enough to resume deliveries, even though international monitors
were deployed to ensure gas would not be siphoned off.

Eighteen EU member states and several other European countries have had
gas supplies either halted or seriously disrupted. A senior European
Union spokesman warned on Friday that "the meetings in coming days
offer the last and best chance for Russia and Ukraine to demonstrate
they are serious about resolving this dispute."

The prime ministers of Russia and Ukraine meet on Saturday in Moscow
for talks on the crisis. Yulia Tymoshenko declared on Friday that her
government had sole responsibility in Ukraine for negotiating a way out
of the crisis.

Vladimir Putin was in Berlin on Friday leading Russia’s efforts to form
a consortium of gas companies to help move towards a solution to the
dispute, particularly in terms of providing Ukraine with the technical
gas it says it needs to transit Russian exports to Europe.

Gazprom, Germany’s E.ON, Ruhrgas and Wingas, Gaz de France and Italy’s
Eni have agreed to join the consortium and more firms could soon follow
suit.

Putin said the technical gas would cost $730 million for the first
three months of 2009, noting that Ukraine had asked for 360 million
cubic meters of technical gas in January, 600 million in February and
600 million in March.

The final makeup of participants in the gas summit is not yet known,
but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday invitations
had been sent to European Union members and other countries affected by
the dispute.

EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Czech Energy Minister Martin
Riman, whose country holds the EU presidency, are expected to take
part, while Serbia will be represented by its energy minister and the
head of national gas utility Srbijagas. Armenian president and
Kazakhstan’s prime minister have both confirmed they will attend.

Russia suspended supplies to Ukraine on January 1 after the former
Soviet neighbors failed to agree on debt and prices for 2009. The halt
in shipments to the EU came a week later, with Gazprom accusing Kiev of
stealing gas intended for EU consumers. Ukraine has denied the
accusation.