Gazprom's Deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev today spoke to international journalists in a conference call:

• Gazprom and Eni will form part of an international consortium to buy and own the gas needed for technical purposes (to replace the gas missing from the pipeline system and to fuel the compressor stations); Gaz de France and E.ON Ruhrgas are positively considering entering into the consortium and the invitation to join is extended to all companies that should receive Russian gas supplied via Ukraine.

• This innovative solution has been proposed as the latest in a series of attempts by Gazprom to do everything it can to get gas flowing to its European customers.  It involves Gazprom and its European partners sharing the financial risk associated with the provision of this significant volume of gas in order to unblock the current impasse, despite the fact that Ukraine has the clear responsibility to provide technical gas. 

• The paperwork for the consortium is being drawn up as we speak and could be in place very rapidly.

• The companies within the consortium would jointly buy the gas at a market rate of around $450 per 1000cm, which is still cheaper than what many of the European customers pay today.  

• Ukraine's refusal to transit gas to Europe had, up to yesterday, resulted in losses by Gazprom of around $1.1 billion, excluding additional costs associated with the management of the companies upstream production and storage systems as a result of the failure to transit gas to Europe.