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Russian gas flow can’t be reversed from Europe to Ukraine – Gazprom

“We are confident that there are no de-facto reversed supplies,” Miller told

Photo ITAR-TASS

Photo ITAR-TASS

KRASNOYARSK, March 30 (Itar-Tass) – The Russian natural gas flow cannot be reversed from Europe to Ukraine, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on Saturday, March 30.

For decades gas was supplies to Ukraine from the east from Russia and Turkmenistan. Recently, Ukraine said it had received gas from the West. Experts think that liquefied gas is transported to Ukraine from European seaports by pipelines via Poland and Slovakia.

“We are confident that there are no de-facto reversed supplies,” Miller told Vesti v Subbotu on Russia One television channel. “Gazprom’s gas goes to Europe, it gets ‘ringed’, a gas measurement station shows relevant volume readings, and the gas is then supplied to Europe in reverse mode.”

Speaking of Ukraine’s plans to buy natural gas at spot prices in Europe, Miller stressed that the price of gas there is higher and under long-term contracts with Gazprom. “In this situation Ukraine will not be able to pay the price of gas from Europe,” he added.

Commenting on so-called shale gas from the United States, Miller said, “We see no risks there. America is not a competitor for us in this respect. The U.S. still has a shortage of gas. We are not aware of any one project to produce shale gas in the U.S. None of the wells there has a positive value. It’s a bubble that will burst soon,” he said.

Ukraine imported 2.494 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia and the European Union in January 2013, the national statistics service said on Wednesday, March 20.

In January, Ukraine imported 2.448 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia worth of 1 billion 132,700 U.S. dollars. The average price of Russian gas for Ukraine was about 408.63 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.

Ukraine also bought 46.714 billion cubic metres of gas from Germany to a total amount of 18.219 million U.S. dollars. The average price of gas purchased from Germany was 390 U.S. dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.

The largest portion of gas is imported under a contract between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Russian Gazprom signed in 2009. The Cypriot company Ostchem Holding also imports natural gas from Russia to Ukraine. The company is owned by Ukrainian entrepreneur Dmitry Firtash. In 2013, Ostchem Holding can import slightly over 8 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Russia for the enterprises within Ostchem Group.

Firtash said earlier that his company was buying natural gas from Russia “at a lower price” than Naftogaz Ukrainy buys from Gazprom.

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