Europe to Discuss Implementation of Agreement with Ukraine

The European Union will discuss how to implement the Association Agreement with Ukraine on Tuesday. European institutions will meet to discuss a common strategy as tensions are on the rise. A court in Moscow ordered to seek the arrest of Ukrainian billionaire Ihor Kolomoisky, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. 

Economic, political and military decisions do indeed intertwine, making a solution even less likely. After calls for normalisation from Moscow, Kiev and Brussels, no military or political ceasefires seem on the horizon.

Despite this, gas flow from Ukraine remains in normal mode as of Friday, according to a note by Slovakia’s Eustream. 

In this sense, it is increasingly clear that this summer is just a preparatory period and things will remain more or less under control. More tensions are expected to erupt come Autumn, when Ukraine will need energy as storage facilities will progressively empty-out. 

Meanwhile, Naftogaz is moving on, pushing forward its plan to include its assets in Crimea in Ukraine’s general lawsuit to Russia and purchasing a major portion of the exit capacity of Voyany-Uzhgorod line from Eustream.  

‘Naftogaz has purchased a major portion of capacity of the newly created route till 2019. The supply of natural gas to Ukraine via Slovakia are to commence as early as September 2014. It is expected that nearly 27 mcm of gas will be delivered daily via this route,’ the company wrote in a statement. 

These Ukrainian attempts to create economic stimulus and promote new projects is likely to be backed by Brussels. 

According to a communiqué, Barroso will take part in a High Level Meeting on Tuesday to discuss key short and medium term priorities in the country.

“The European Union has been providing wide ranging political, financial and technical assistance to Ukraine's domestic reform process. Other international donors have also been very active. We will meet on 8 July, together with the Ukrainian government, to ensure effective coordination of our common efforts” - European Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, commented.  

RUSSIA

Also on Friday, Novatek and Sibur completed a series of projects intended to create an integrated technological chain. 

‘During the teleconference held in the town of Purovsk (Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Region), Novatek announced the expansion of its Purovsky Gas Condensate Processing Plant’s (“Pursovky Plant”) capacity from five (5) to 11 million tons per annum (“mtpa”) providing for the additional volumes of natural gas feedstock for gas processing and petrochemical production. This discussion was followed by a teleconference from Tobolsk, where Mikhail Karisalov, Sibur’s Executive Director, informed Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that a new raw NGL (“natural gas liquids”) pipeline between the Purovsky Plant and the Tobolsk production site had commenced testing operations and had already transferred first volumes of raw NGL from the Purovsky Plant to the expanded gas fractionation capacities at Tobolsk-Neftekhim,’ Novatek wrote on its website.