Kiev : Energy officials in Kiev Tuesday said Russian natural gas
was slowly moving into Ukraine’s pipeline system, rejecting allegations from
Moscow that Ukraine was blocking the flow.
“Gas has started to come in (to Ukraine’s pipeline system from Russia),” an
official from the Ukrainian natural gas monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy said.
“Pressure in the system is rising.”
The Naftogaz declaration contradicted claims by officials from the Russian
natural gas monopoly Gazprom that Ukraine was preventing Russian gas from
moving towards Europe.
Russia Tuesday morning ended an embargo on natural gas shipments into
Ukraine’s pipeline system by opening the tap into one of Ukraine’s five
trans-country transportation mains.
Pressure at the inlet had risen by midday Tuesday to a volume of 76.2
million cubic metres of Russian natural gas being pumped Westward daily, a
Naftogaz official said.
Ukrainian energy engineers were according to Ukrainska Pravda magazine
likely to struggle to deliver the gas in full volume to its outlet on the
Ukraine-Romania border, as Ukraine’s natural gas transportation system is
interconnected and raising pressure in a single southern pipeline, without
gas moving elsewhere in the system, is technically difficult.
The Kremlin cut off gas shipments to Ukraine last week, citing siphoning by
Kiev as grounds. Ukrainian officials have never admitted to stealing Russian
gas, saying Russian gas was diverted to maintain pressure in Ukraine’s
pipeline system, or taken as payment for shipment of Russian gas through
Ukrainian pipelines.