Gazprom Highlights WINGAS Report on Meeting with Gazprom Officials, Visit to Central Dispatching Office and Meeting with Putin

WINGAS observer travels on to the Ukraine

Delegation allowed into Gazprom's central dispatching office / Access to measurement records and official correspondence / Talks with Putin too

Moscow / Brussels. On Tuesday evening the EU's team of observers and other foreign representatives were received in Moscow for talks lasting well over an hour by the Chairman of the Management Committee of OAO Gazprom, Alexey Miller, and Managing Director of the subsidiary Gazprom export, Alexander Medvedev.

"The work of the observers has received the highest-level attention in Russia. The Chairman of Gazprom informed us very openly and at great length yesterday. The monitoring team was given access to all the processes and there is no indication that any information was held back", observer Uwe Schraps said.  The 50-year-old physicist was invited to take part in the delegation as an expert and represents the Kassel-based company WINGAS. "Our questions were answered in great detail, we also had unlimited access to the company's central dispatching office and were able to see the data on the flow of gas deliveries as well as measurement records", Mr Schraps said.

The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had also informed the monitors on the current situation in the dispatching office, where the flow of gas from Russia to Western Europe is controlled and monitored. Putin expressed a clear wish to meet with the international monitors. Mr Schraps, a German electro-physicist, is set to travel on to the Russian-Ukrainian border today with other representatives from the observer team.

The observers were informed that Gazprom had delivered gas to the Russian-Ukrainian border via the Sudzha gas-measuring station on 13 January 2009 as agreed - 76 million cubic meters for customers in the Balkans and another 22 million cubic meters for Slovakia. "This was also confirmed on site by observers", Mr Schraps said. However, Ukraine's Ukrtransgaz did not open the gate valves nor receive the gas.

The team of international observers that arrived in Moscow yesterday included 8 representatives: three EU observers and five experts from companies E.ON Ruhrgas, ENI, Gaz de France/Suez, WINGAS and Panrusgaz.