Energy Headlines

Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said on February 2 that the National
Security and Defense Council (RNBO) the day before adopted a decision to
forego the services of RosUkrEnergo, UkrGazEnergo, and other intermediaries
in gas supplies to Ukraine, RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service reported. Tymoshenko
said that the government will hold talks in an evolutionary way in order not
to destabilize either gas transportation across Ukrainian territory or
Ukraine's domestic market. However, President Viktor Yushchenko, who heads
the RNBO, has not directly confirmed that such a decision was made.
Yushchenko said that the RNBO on February 1 decided to formulate within 10
days a single strategy in accordance to which the government and Naftohaz
Ukrayiny, the state-owned gas company, will hold all international talks on
the gas issue. "What is our goal? To have cheap gas or to give an answer how
and by whom it is delivered? Certainly, we are interested in the former,"
Yushchenko said. Under the current gas-delivery scheme, Russian gas giant
Gazprom sells gas to RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss-registered joint venture between
Gazprom and Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash, and then RosUkrEnergo
resells it to UkrGazEnergo, a Ukrainian-registered joint venture between
RosUkrEnergo and Naftohaz Ukrayiny.

Source: RADIO FREE EUROPE