EC Initiates Gas Supply Talks between Oettinger, Novak

The European Commission is initiating a meeting between EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak in Moscow this week.

The two are to discuss gas supplies to Ukraine and EU countries.

However, the talks may not take place as Russia has not yet responded, according to reports of ITAR-TASS, as cited by econ.bg.

The main goal of the EC is to stimulate the resumption of trilateral consultations between Russia, Ukraine and EU.

During the consultations, the three parties are to achieve consensus on the price and terms for gas supplies to Ukraine.

Apart from that, the issue of settling Ukraine's debt to Russia is to be solved.

The EC underscores that solving these problems is essential because in the gas quantities stored at Ukraine's depots may prove insufficient in winter, necessitating restrictions to gas deliveries to EU countries.

Oettinger has argued that Russia and Ukraine will reach a compromise by the end of summer at the latest.

In June, the three parties failed to reach agreement on gas supplies.

Russia claimed that Ukraine needed to settle a USD 1.45 B debt to Gazprom for gas deliveries in the last two months of 2013.