Ukraine negotiates gas supplies from the United States Sunday, May 5, 2019 12:00:03 PM

The head of the Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolyev, in an interview with the Voice of America, announced that Naftogaz is negotiating with the United States the supply of the American gas to Ukraine.

According to him, the parties are looking "very closely" at this issue. “This is not a final decision yet, but there is interest from both sides,” said Kobolyev and expressed hope that “this interest will be transformed into concrete gas flows.”

On May 1, the head of Naftogaz was on a working visit to Washington. According to the Voice of America, he "tried to ensure the United States support" in negotiations with Russia, as well as working out a joint position on the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline.

According to Kobolyev, the company's “main message” concerns the situation around the gas transit agreement through the territory of Ukraine after 2019. “The agreement is expiring, and, as you probably know, the Russian side, Gazprom, still holds an unclear position in the negotiations,” he said. “We think they are buying time.”

Ealier, Kobolyev said that Naftogaz and Gazprom had no “room for maneuver” in negotiations on a new gas transit contract. He believes that the parties should agree on the extension of the agreement since the Russian company cannot block the flow of gas in Ukraine since it "owes money to Naftogaz, and not vice versa."

At the end of April, the executive director of the Ukrainian company, Yuryi Vitrenko, accused Russia of preparing a gas war. He came to this conclusion amid growing volumes of gas transit through Ukraine. According to the representative of the company, Moscow is pumping gas into storage facilities in Europe and this way going to cover the needs of European customers after the transit stops.

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