Thursday, 8 January 2009
The head of Russia's energy giant Gazprom has arrived in Brussels for bilateral talks with senior EU officials over the current gas dispute between Russia and Ukraine, a Gazprom spokesman said on Thursday.
"Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller has arrived in Brussels to inform the European Commission leadership about the current crisis around gas shipments and gas transit across Ukraine," Sergei Kupriyanov said.
Miller is scheduled to hold meetings with European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Parliament Speaker Hans-Geert Pottering.
Ukraine's Naftogaz CEO Oleh Dubyna may attend the talks. Miller and Dubina arrived in Brussels after overnight talks in Moscow aimed at breaking the deadlock in the crisis.
Previous talks between Russia and Ukraine ended on New Year's Eve with no agreement on how to settle Kiev's gas debts or on a contract for 2009 deliveries.
Gazprom halted on Wednesday gas supplies to Ukraine for transit to Europe. According to the company, the latest check established that Ukraine was not carrying any gas to Europe despite Russia's move to continue gas supplies to Ukraine through the Sudzha station.
Kiev closed on Wednesday the fourth, final gas pipeline pumping Russian gas to Europe. The latest closure added Austria, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia to the growing list of countries receiving no Russian gas.
The three other pipelines were closed on Tuesday, ending deliveries via Ukraine to Hungary, Serbia, Macedonia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, and Bosnia. Supplies to Italy, Poland, France and Slovenia are seriously disrupted.
Gazprom earlier accused Ukraine of stealing more than 86 million cubic meters of gas since the start of the year, but Kiev denied the accusations saying that Russia was trying to discredit Ukraine as a reliable gas transit partner.
