The prime ministers of Bulgaria, Slovakia and Moldova saw for themselves that Ukraine blocks Russian gas transit to Europe

Today Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller held a working meeting in the company's headquarters with Prime Minster of Bulgaria Sergei Stanishev, Prime Minster of Slovakia Robert Fico and Prime Minister of Moldova Zinaida Greceanii.

Participants in the meeting discussed the critical situation, which developed because of the Ukrainian refusal to transit Russian gas to Europe.

They visited the Central Dispatch Department where Alexei Miller demonstrated on the dispatching screen to Sergei Stanishev, Robert Fico and Zinaida Greceanii the real situation with the gas transit through Ukraine.

The meeting in the Central Dispatch Department was held with the participation of monitors and members of the commission for the monitoring of gas transit through the territory of Ukraine.

"We began to pump gas yesterday morning towards the Balkans, which are experiencing the most acute fuel shortage. However Ukraine did not take in the gas and continues to block our gas from its transportation system. The Ukrainian side has not given any comprehensible explanations of their refusals to our demands that they open the Western taps. As you can see on the dispatch screen the gas transportation system is open on our side, is maintaining operating pressure and is ready to begin pumping gas to Europe at any minute through GIS Sundzha. However zero volumes of gas are going to Ukraine, as the gas still encounters the closed Ukrainian tap. 

Today, during our meeting we discussed possible steps to resolve the crisis. In particular, the Slovak prime minister proposed a major swap transaction.

It means Gazprom would supply gas to Ukraine for its internal needs in the amount of 20 million cubic meters per day, which is the amount necessary for Slovakia, while Ukraine, which has its underground storages located at the border with Slovakia, would supply the same amount of gas to Slovak consumers.  

Gazprom agrees to such a swap. Ukraine has to open the tap on its territory for that. Now it’s up to Ukraine.

We have also agreed to consider how to implement a similar scheme for Moldova.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to make swap transactions with Bulgaria, as Ukraine has no underground gas storages in that direction," Alexei Miller said.

At the end of the meeting the parties agreed that the current crisis with gas transit via Ukraine must end immediately and there are no objective reasons to delay the re-start of transit. 

Sergei Stanishev, Robert Fico and Zinaida Greceanii stressed the necessity to diversify the supply routes for Russian gas to Europe to avoid transit risks, and thus the construction of direct pipelines, such as South Stream the Black Sea bed, becomes specifically important.