Kyiv, January 16 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy currently owes $650 million to RosUkrEnergo, a co-owner of the Swiss-registered gas trader, Dmytro Firtash, said on Echo of Moscow radio late on Thursday.
He said that problems with payments appeared in March last year when UkrGaz-Energo, a joint venture of RosUkrEnergo and Naftogaz Ukrainy, was excluded from gas supply schemes.
The co-owner of the mediator selling Russian gas to Ukraine said that “Kyiv has never re-exported Russian fuel.”
It was reported earlier that Naftogaz denies it has any debts to RosUkrEnergo. Naftogaz claims RosUkrEnergo might be referring to penalties it believes are owed, but only a court can rule on that.
Firtash has said that Naftogaz sold the gas to Ukrainian enterprises at a significantly higher price than it paid ($179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters), which begs the question of why Naftogaz dragged out payment to RosUkrEnergo, allowing the arrears to reach $2.6 billion in October.
Firtash blamed the government’s thirst for cash to finance its populist policies.
RosUkrEnergo hasn’t made any money on its operations with Ukraine, in contrast to the days when Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko worked in the energy sector. “Tymoshenko made money on Ukraine and wrote off debts on Ukraine’s tab. RosUkrEnergo made money on Central Asia and on exports,” he said.
RosUkrEnergo has been subsidizing the Ukrainian economy to the tune of $1 billion a year and the total has reached $5 billion, he said.
That was possible thanks to a balanced portfolio of gas purchases and sales and a proper structure of relations with all market participants. “No one has come up with anything better,” he said.
RosUkrEnergo has provided Ukraine with low gas prices and given Gazprom access to the Central Asian gas market and participation on the Ukrainian market.
Firtash dismissed the notion the company was “working on someone’s behalf.”
“I work for myself and make my own money,” he said.
The current gas deadlock is easily explained, he said. “It’s a test of strength, but business ought to be conducted precisely and quietly, balancing relations between supplier and transiter,” he said.
Firtash said the dispute must be removed from the political plane. “Today the weight category [of the negotiators] is such that it has not relation to me. But if we need to, we’re ready to offer a boost,” he said.
RosUkrEnergo “is doubly hurt by the current conflict,” he said.
“Firstly because RosUkrEnergo is excluded from the scheme for delivering gas to Ukraine and secondly because we have no crude, we can’t get going.”
Prime Minister Tymoshenko has previously blamed the breakdown in negotiations on Ukrainian politicians who want to preserve the current scheme for Russian gas deliveries through RosUkrEnergo.
