Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Wednesday there were no grounds for reviewing natural gas supply and transit contracts with Ukraine .

"I cannot see any grounds for reviewing the pricing and transit conditions," Gazprom deputy CEO Alexander Medvedev told a news conference.

Medvedev said top-class contracts stipulated the rights for the parties to review the terms and conditions but only if there were real grounds.

Gazprom has refuted to keep gas in the underground gas storages of Ukraine because of unreliability. Deputy chairman of Gazprom Alexander Medvedev claimed this at a press conference in Moscow today, on June 24.

According to him, it is clear that financial crisis has influenced on the situation negatively but it does not release Ukraine from fulfillment of engagements as a transit country. “Ukrainian gas transport system works in such way that physical volume of transit is not very big – main supplies are being done from underground gas storages. If there is lack of gas volume in underground gas storages of Ukraine, it will be impossible to supply consumers in Europe with gas”, A.Medvedev said.

Commenting on Gazprom deputy head Aleksandr Medvedev’s statement that it will be technically impossible to pump gas to Europe if Ukraine does not have sufficient supplies of gas in its underground reservoirs, the premier’s advisor on energy issues and lawmakerOleksa Hudyma noted: “Several years ago, Ukraine had 5 to 7 bln in underground storage, and this did not affect the reliable work of our pipelines. Last year we had 22 bln, a sufficient supply to keep up steady pumping even at the height of Russia’s war against Europe and Ukraine.”

As a reminder, the gas deal the Russian and Ukrainian premiers reached on January 19 ended an almost three-week disruption in supplies to Ukraine and transits to the EU caused by a bitter pricing and debt dispute between the former Soviet allies.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko has criticized on numerous occasions the gas deals with Russia and called for a review of the gas transit tariffs, warning that otherwise Ukraine could lose $2.5 billion in 2009.

Source: RiaNovosti, ZIK

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