European Commission on Monday issued guarantees to East-European countries – Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic, in the first place – that it will secure the necessary amounts of crude oil for them if problems emerge with the transits of crude from Russia’s Siberian oilfields via the Ukrainian territory.
A spokesman for the EC told Itar-Tass with confidence that none of the EU countries will experience any shortage of crude.
The EU have enough capabilities to meet the long-term demands of Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic for oil, he said.
East-European countries took a number of urgent measures Monday on the background of their concern over a commercial dispute between Russian and Ukraine in case of a possible reduction of Russian crude supplies by the Druzhba pipeline.
EU officials told Itar-Tass, for instance, that the government organizations in the three countries supervising the energy sector had emergency meetings Monday.
Kiev insists that the agreement on the transits of Russian crude, which stays in effect through to 2019, furnishes it with the right to change the parameters of Russian oil transits by the Druzhba pipeline.
Ukrainian President’s representative for international issues of energy security, voiced this conviction at a conference with ambassadors of a number of European countries. It was convened at their demand.
Sokolovsky said in the course of the meeting that Kiev will fulfill all of its obligations on supplies of transits of Russian crude to the EU.
Simultaneously, Kiev gave assurances to the European Commission it will not put up any impediments to the transits of EU-bound crude.
In the meantime, the press secretary of the Russian Ministry of Energy, Irina Yessipova told Itar-Tass in Moscow Russia and Ukraine have coordinated the terms of crude transits on the whole and an appropriate agreement will be signed within the next two days.
(from Itar Tass)