Financial Times: Gazprom rejects Kiev gas contract plea

Gazprom has rejected an appeal by Kiev to renegotiate its gas supply contract, insisting Ukraine must pay it $7bn for unused gas.

The uncompromising stance will stoke fears that the dispute between Russia’s state controlled energy giant and its biggest foreign customer could escalate into the kind of trade war that disrupted the supply of Russian gas to Europe in 2006 and 2009.

Alexander Medvedev, Gazprom’s deputy chief executive and the head of its export arm, said in an interview that Ukraine had incurred the penalty by importing much less than stipulated under the “take-or-pay” clause of its 2009 supply contract.  MORE