Ukraine siphons Russian gas shipment

MOSCOW (AP) – Ukraine has siphoned some of Russia’s natural gas shipments to the Balkans, the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom said late Friday – a day after it cut supplies to Ukraine in a contract dispute.

But Ukraine’s Naftogaz company said it was only using some of the gas Russia pumps through the country to keep its pipeline system operating, and that it should not be blamed for the supply reductions to the Balkans. Naftogaz said it was Gazprom’s duty to ship this so-called “technical” gas.

Naftogaz uses the same pipeline system to serve both domestic and transit gas customers.

Gazprom Deputy Chairman Alexander Medvedev urged Ukraine to comply with agreements to maintain shipments, saying Balkan countries were “suffering” from a reduction in supplies.

Romania marked a 30-40 percent drop in Russian supplies Friday evening, the country’s Transgaz transport company said, according to Realitatea TV.

Poland saw a 6 percent decrease in the gas flow from Ukraine, according to the Polish gas monopoly PGNiG and pipeline operator OGP Gaz-System.

Customers in both Poland and Romania have not been affected, however. Transgaz’ managing director Ioan Rusu told Realitatea TV that Romania had two days worth of supplies to meet customer needs. And the Polish gas interests said the country was making up the 6 percent deficit with supplies from another receiving point on the border with Belarus.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials were visiting European capitals Friday to argue their case in the dispute with Russia. They also were reassuring neighbors that Kiev would not interrupt gas supplies, according to Bohdan Sokolovsky, energy adviser to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko,

The Ukrainian delegation, led by Energy Minister Yuriy Prodan and including Naftogaz’ deputy chief Volodymyr Chuprun, traveled to the Czech capital of Prague, Slovakia’s capital of Bratislava and then to Brussels, Belgium, for meetings with officials.

“Our aim is to explain our position to our European partners on the situation which arose in the gas sphere,” Sokolovsky said by telephone from Bratislava.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement asked the European Commission to convene a special session so it also could tell its side of the story.

On Thursday, state-controlled Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine, saying Ukrainian officials had failed to pay a $2.1 billion bill. Ukrainian and Russian officials held no face-to-face talks on Friday.

It was not the first time Russia cut Ukraine’s supplies. In a 2006 dispute, Russia halted Ukraine’s shipments, which temporarily affected supplies to Europe and led to accusations that Russia was an unreliable energy source.

Many in the West viewed the 2006 cutoff as a Russian effort to punish Ukraine’s political leaders for their pro-Western policies.

This year, Russia has tried to paint the conflict as a purely commercial matter, and both countries pledged to keep gas flowing through Ukraine’s pipelines to the rest of Europe.

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