Following emergency talks in Brussels, Russia and Ukraine’s energy ministers reached an agreement late on March 2 to ensure natural gas supplies to Ukraine for the month of March, averting possible cuts that could have hit supplies to theEuropean Union.
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom had been threatening to turn off the taps to Ukraine on March 2 unless it received outstanding pre-payments, as agreed in the so-called Winter Package reached last October.
See also: Brussels emergency talks on Russian gas for Ukraine
“I am satisfied that we managed to safeguard the full application of the winter package for the supply needs in Ukraine,” European Commission Vice President for Energy Union Maros Sefcovic said, after mediating the emergency talks between Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Demchyshyn.
Demchyshyn said that both parties had agreed “to obey the rules” until the end of March.
Under the deal sealed in Brussels, Ukraine’s state gas company Naftogaz will pre-pay and order sufficient quantities of gas to ensure all domestic consumption for March and guarantee undisrupted supplies to the EU. Gazprom commits to supply a set quantity of natural gas each day at agreed on delivery points.
Complicating the dispute has been deliveries to the war-torn Eastern Ukraine.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/moscow-kiev-reach-one-month-gas-deal-risks-remain