A European energy administration agency said Monday the Ukrainian government needs to examine its contractual relationship with Russian energy company Gazprom. The European Energy Secretariat sent a letter to Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan calling for an assessment of the contract between Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz and Gazprom. Parts of the contract, including the take-or-pay clause requiring Naftogaz to pay for a pre-determined volume of gas, serves to “prevent, restrict and distort competition on the natural gas market in Ukraine and affect trade in natural gas within the [European] energy community,” the secretariat said in a statement . Gazprom in June switched Naftogaz over to the new payment scheme because of $4.45 billion in overdue bills. Russia supplies about a quarter of the European Union’s gas needs, though most of those supplies run through the Soviet-era transit network in Ukraine. Debt disputes in 2006 and 2009 prompted Gazprom to […]