Ukraine’s national gas holding Naftogaz has signed an agreement with an unnamed major international investor to secure 450 million cubic metres of gas for the first half of 2020, Ukrainian news agency UNIAN has reported.
“Thanks to the developed European gas market, and despite the risk of gas transit interruption by Russia this coming winter, we have contracted the required volumes with physical delivery in Q1 2020,” Naftogaz said in a statement, adding that the company is currently considering several offers from European suppliers to secure gas supplies for next year and will make agreements if the use of the gas is “commercially justified.”
Earlier this week, the Ukrainian media reported that the company accumulated more than 19.5 billion cubic metres of natural gas from Western imports for the upcoming heating season.
Mr Kobolyev’s announcement was made shortly before trilateral talks between the EU, Russia and Ukraine on reaching a gas transit agreement for Ukraine with Russian energy giant Gazprom will start on September 19.
Meantime, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin was not expecting an immediate agreement, noting that “a lot of painstaking work needs to be done.”
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