Gazprom says Ukraine starts taking transit gas

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – Russian gas export monopoly Gazprom said on Wednesday Ukraine had warned it is taking gas from transit pipelines to Europe to compensate for lower supplies for its domestic needs.

The world’s largest gas company, chaired by Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev, said Ukraine planned to take 60 million cubic metres (mcm) a day, or almost 17 percent of the total it sends to Europe from Russia.


“This is the volume that European consumers won’t get,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told reporters in Moscow, adding that Gazprom’s observers had not registered lower exports to Europe so far.

Gazprom reduced supplies to Ukraine by 50 percent on Tuesday — after starting with a 25 percent cut the day before — and threatened further cuts unless a debt of $600 million (303 million pounds) was settled and a 2008 contract signed.

Reuters