Ukraine in Arabic | Russia accuses Ukraine of technical gas imbalance
KYIV/Ukraine in arabic/ "This can give rise to for the suspension of Russian gas supplies to European consumers", Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan said.
According to him, a technical imbalance appears every day, since it needs 32 hours for gas to transit from the eastern to western border of Ukraine. Correspondingly, to achieve zero per day is very difficult.
"We received from Russian Federation a draft act on rendering of transit services for July 2014, in which Russia is trying to interpret a technical imbalance – 0.03% – as an above-contract gas supply," he said. These claims from Russia could be used as a pretext for various actions.
"Gas supplies to EU depend only on Gazprom. Ukraine's can't predict Gazprom's behavior – it can stop supplies at any moment, as happening in 2009," the minister said.
The minister noted how in 2009 Russia halted gas supplies to the EU, accusing Ukraine of theft despite de facto Ukraine supplying more than it received from Russia.
"For nineteen days of January 2009 Ukraine transited for 28 million cubic meters more than Gazprom delivered. But it didn't stop Gazprom, and it halted gas supplies to European countries," he said.