Ukraine in Arabic | Russia to continue energy dialog with Europe
KYIV/Ukraine in Arabic/ Energy Minister Alexander Novak will meet with European Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger in Moscow on August 29, the Russian ministry said in a statement
The main topics of discussion will be ensuring the safety of gas transit to Europe through Ukraine, the legal and technical aspects of the South Stream gas pipeline project, Gazprom's full access to capacity on the OPAL gas pipeline and issues connected with the operation of the Russia-EU Energy Dialog, the Energy Ministry said.
Novak and Oettinger last met during trilateral Russia-EU-Ukraine talks in Brussels on June 11, although they have spoken on the phone a number of times since then. Talks concerning Ukraine's $5.3 billion debt for gas deadlocked earlier this summer and Gazprom switched to demanding prepayment from Ukraine for gas deliveries effective from June 16. Since then it has not delivered any gas to Ukraine. During summer, Ukraine is able to get by with domestic gas production and is able to provide uninterrupted gas transit to Europe. But officials in Kyiv acknowledge that they will need about 5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas with the onset of winter.
In addition, there has still be no agreement on Russian access to 50% of capacity on the OPAL gas pipeline in Germany, which is supplied from Nord Stream. The European Commission has also forced a halt to all work in Bulgaria on the South Stream pipeline project.
