Europeans needn’t worry about gas supplies - Ukrainian PM

Published time: 18 Dec, 2007 18:40 Edited time: 18 Dec, 2007 21:40

Ukraine’s newly appointed Prime Minister, Yulia Timoshenko, has pledged that the country will fulfill its gas transit obligations to ensure uninterrupted supplies to Europe. She also called for talks with Moscow to eliminate all intermediaries in the gas

“My position remains unchanged. There should be no intermediaries on the gas market. We have Naftogaz Ukraine, which we will put back on a normal financial footing. On the other side, there is Gazprom and there are our two governments, Russian and Ukrainian. No one needs any intermediaries in this matter. I think it's regarding this specific context that we'll hold talks with the Russian side,” said Yulia Timoshenko.

Europe gets a quarter of its gas from Russia, 80 per cent of which travels through Ukraine.

Russia has set gas prices for Ukraine for the next year at $US 179.5 per thousand cubic metres, which represents a 38 per cent increase.

Ukraine buys Russian gas via intermediary RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss company, half owned by Gazprom.

Timoshenko has long criticised RosUkrEnergo as an opaque company that increases the cost of gas transit.