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Bypassing Ukraine will be costly for Russia’s Gazprom: analysts

An employee turns a valve at a gas compressor station in the village of Boyarka, outside Kiev, Ukraine, in this April 22, 2015 file photo. Russia’s plans to drop Ukraine as a route for pumping natural gas to Europe will still leave state-run Gazprom facing about $1 billion in annual transit fees to Slovakia and Bulgaria for years to come, analysts and industry sources say. Russia wants to circumnavigate Ukraine to pipe its gas to Europe because of pricing disagreements, which at times have led to disruptions in supplies to the European Union, but doing so will come at a cost which some analysts say is too high. Billions of euros will be needed to build and expand alternative routes, and the route of the existing pipeline means transit fees to Slovakia and Bulgaria will have to be paid by Gazprom even if Russia manages to bypass Ukraine by […]

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LNG deliveries mulled for Ukrainian market

Texas company reviews prospects of sending liquefied natural gas to a Ukrainian market under the thumb of Russian energy company Gazprom. File Photo by UPI/Shutterstock/Igor Golovniov HOUSTON, July 15 (UPI) — A Texas-based company, led in part by a former Conoco Phillips veteran, said it was reviewing the prospects of shipping liquefied natural gas to Ukraine. Frontera Resources Corp. said it signed a memorandum of understanding with Ukraine’s state-run energy company Naftogaz to work in the upstream, or exploration and production, sector in Ukraine as well as study the potential to deliver liquefied natural gas from its work in Caucasus country Georgia. "I strongly believe that our closer work with Naftogaz will open avenues to strategically supply Ukraine with LNG from across the Black Sea," Steve Nicandros, former Conoco brass and Frontera’s chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement. "This will serve to diversify the country’s supply […]

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IMF Warns Proposed Legislation in Ukraine Threatens Reforms

KIEV, Ukraine—The International Monetary Fund warned Sunday that recently proposed legislation in Ukraine threatens to undermine reforms critical to the success of a $40 billion bailout package for the country. Poul Thomsen, director of the IMF’s European department, said in a statement that seven pieces of legislation up for review in Ukraine’s parliament next week could roll back important reforms on pensions and energy tariffs that Ukrainian lawmakers passed earlier this year. The fund also condemned a separate law passed by parliament earlier this month that would allow Ukrainians to repay foreign currency loans at a more favorable exchange rate, a move some experts have said could collapse the country’s banking system. President Petro Poroshenko has signaled he will veto the foreign-exchange bill. The IMF’s concerns come as Ukraine continues to struggle with a buckling economy, as the armed conflict with Russia-backed rebels persists in the country’s east. Ukraine’s […]

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Ukraine raises gas imports from Slovakia: company

Ukraine will take about 21 percent more gas from Slovakia to boost deliveries to underground storage after the country suspended imports from Russia over a pricing dispute, transport monopoly Ukrtransgaz said on Friday. Ukraine plans to import 16.5 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas on Friday from Slovakia, up from daily imports of 13.6 mcm so far this month, a spokesman for the company said. He said Ukraine pumped 27 mcm of gas per day from July 1-9 and collected 12.2 billion cubic meters of gas in reserves as of July 10. Ukrainian energy officials say Ukrtransgaz must store about 60 mcm of gas per day to ensure it has enough gas to meet demand during the winter and to guarantee the transit of Russian gas to European consumers. With Ukraine’s economy close to bankruptcy because of years of economic mismanagement and fighting against pro-Russian rebels in the country’s […]

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Ukraine reviews domestic gas options

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk calls for domestic natural gas reserves to dominate the nation’s energy sector within the next 10 years. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI KIEV, Ukraine, July 8 (UPI) — Ukraine’s prime minister said the country must wean itself off foreign natural gas within 10 years, offering tax breaks as an incentive to private companies. "Ukraine has to provide itself with domestic gas production within 10 years by reducing the consumption and increasing the domestic production," Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said. Trilateral talks between European, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators collapsed last week in Vienna. The energy relationship between Ukraine and Russia has been strained at least since 2006, when Ukrainian debt issues prompted Russian energy company Gazprom to cut gas supplies through the country. The Kremlin during last week’s debate opted to keep prices for Ukraine unchanged from the second quarter, which included a $40 […]

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Russian, Ukrainian gas talks collapse

Natural gas talks between Russia and Ukraine collapse in Vienna after Kiev balks on price offer. File Photo by UPI/Ivan Vakolenko VIENNA, July 1 (UPI) — European leaders said they’d get to work on proposing new strategies after natural gas talks between Russia and Ukraine collapsed in Vienna. European Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic met in Vienna with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Demchyshyn and Andriy Kobolev, the chief executive officer at Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz. The energy relationship between Ukraine and Russia has been strained at least since 2006, when Ukrainian debt issues prompted Russian energy company Gazprom to cut gas supplies through Ukraine. The European economy gets about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia, though most of that runs through the Soviet-era pipeline network in Ukraine. The European Commission has acted as a mediator to bilateral talks that began in March […]

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Russia, Ukraine ‘Still Far Apart’ on Gas Deal

BRUSSELS—Russia and Ukraine “are still far apart” on a deal to ensure stable natural-gas deliveries to Ukraine and the European Union over the winter, the EU’s energy czar said Tuesday. The statement from the EU’s vice president for the energy union, Maros Sefcovic, came after the energy ministers from both sides met in Vienna, along with the chief executives of their gas companies, Russia’s OAO Gazprom and Ukraine’s OAO Naftogaz. The EU gets about one-third of its gas from Russia and about half of that is transported through Ukraine. But the conflict in eastern Ukraine and the broader standoff between Moscow and Kiev has put these deliveries in doubt. “As the meeting has shown today, the parties are still far apart,” Mr. Sefcovic said. “We have agreed that the [European] Commission will put forward ideas to prepare next steps so that the next consultation could take place.”

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Ukraine suspends Russian gas purchases

A worker checks equipment at the Dashava gas storage near the western Ukrainian town Stryi Russian gas purchases have been suspended by Ukraine after a breakdown in talks aimed at keeping supplies running for three to six months. The Ukrainian state energy company, Naftogaz, said it would continue transporting Russian gas supplies to other European customers. It will be the second time in less than a year that Russian fuel supplies have stopped running to Ukraine. Russian energy minister Alexander Novak called the decision "unfortunate". Moscow hiked prices after Kremlin-backed leader Viktor Yanukovych was ousted in February 2014. It cut off gas supplies in June 2014 as the conflict between the government in Kiev and pro-Russian rebels in the east escalated. Since then, the European Union, which mediated at the price negotiations in Vienna, has forged a series of temporary agreements that need to be renewed every three months. […]

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Gazprom Seeks A Way Around Ukraine By 2019

Gazprom has vowed to entirely cut out Ukraine as a transit hub for natural gas exports to Europe. The conflict with Ukraine has scrambled the longstanding energy relationship between Russia and Europe. The European Union imports around one-third of its natural gas from Russia, but having seen those flows cut off multiple times in the past, European officials are pushing to rid themselves of their dependence on Moscow. The violence in Ukraine solidified that motivation. Russia is also unhappy with the arrangement. In an effort to separate gas exports to the EU (a critical business relationship that Moscow doesn’t want interrupted) from its ongoing conflict with Kiev (a geostrategic priority), Russia has a great incentive to cut out Ukraine. About half of Russia’s gas exports to Europe must travel through Ukraine. But that could change within the next four years, if Gazprom gets its way. “We will not export […]

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Greece and Ukraine crises drown out G7 summit agenda

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) industrial nations meet on Sunday in the Bavarian Alps for a summit overshadowed by Greece’s debt crisis and ongoing violence in Ukraine. Host Angela Merkel is hoping to secure commitments from her G7 guests to tackle global warming to build momentum in the run-up to a major United Nations climate summit in Paris in December. The German agenda also foresees discussions on global health issues, from Ebola to antibiotics and tropical diseases. But on the evening before the German chancellor welcomes the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan and the United States, she and French President Francois Hollande were forced into their fourth emergency phone call in 10 days with Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to try to break a deadlock between Athens and its international creditors. The two sides have been wrangling for months over the terms of […]

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