RIA Novosti: EU Urges Companies to Pump Gas to Ukraine Facilities – Report

The European Commission has encouraged European natural gas companies to buy and pump gas to storage facilities in Ukraine to help guarantee uninterrupted gas transit this winter, the Kommersant business daily said Friday, citing market sources.

Ukraine previously pumped gas to its underground gas storage facilities itself, but it has refused to pay for its current gas imports amid the deep political and economic crisis in the country.

Kiev, which owes $3.5 billion for Russian gas delivered over the last 16 months, has no funds to pay for the additional 8 billion cubic meters of gas, worth $4 billion, to be pumped to underground facilities.

At informal consultations, major European companies asked the European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive body, to provide political guarantees that the gas will not disappear after it is pumped to the storage facilities.
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