Bloomberg: Gas-Transit Deal Shows Cost to Russia of Bypassing Ukraine

Russia’s plan to bypass the Ukrainian gas-transit network by 2020 may cost OAO Gazprom hundreds of millions of euros in fees committed to Slovakia.

Gazprom has a “ship-or-pay” transit contract with Eustream SA until 2028, Vahram Chuguryan, a spokesman for the Slovak gas pipeline operator, said in a telephone interview on Thursday. That obliges the Russian gas producer to pay transit fees for a minimum of 50 billion cubic meters a year whether the commodity is shipped or not, he said.

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