Business | Oil & Gas
Top Russia and Ukraine officials hold talks over gas dispute
The two top gas executives from Russian and Ukraine held talks in Moscow yesterday, in the first face-to-face contact since their row choked off supplies to EU countries in bitter winter weather.
- Reuters
- Published: 23:38 January 8, 2009
Moscow/Kiev: The two top gas executives from Russian and Ukraine held talks in Moscow yesterday, in the first face-to-face contact since their row choked off supplies to EU countries in bitter winter weather.
There was no immediate word on the outcome of the talks, but further urgent diplomacy was planned for later yesterday when delegations from Kiev and Moscow were to meet officials from a European Union increasingly concerned at the gas cut-offs.
Russia's state-controlled gas export monopoly Gazprom fully suspended supplies of transit gas towards Ukraine on Wednesday, saying there was no longer any point delivering the gas because Kiev had shut down the pipelines.
Ukraine - whose pro-Western leaders have clashed with the Kremlin over their drive to join Nato - said Russia was deliberately starving Europe of gas. Russia cut off gas for Ukraine's domestic consumption on New Year's Day.
The row over gas prices and debts owed by Ukraine to Russia cut heating to tens of thousands of households in Bulgaria and hit supplies as far west as France and Germany as Europe faced freezing mid-winter temperatures.
In Bulgaria, one of the worst affected countries, at least 45,000 households were without central heating on Wednesday. Schools were shut and some companies were closed. Temperatures in Sofia fell to minus 14 degrees Celsius overnight.
Gazprom Chief Executive Alexei Miller and Oleh Dubyna, head of Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz, met overnight in Moscow, a Gazprom official said. The official declined to give any details.
The two men "discussed ways out of this crisis situation", Russian news agencies quoted Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov as saying.
Miller and Dubyna were expected to meet again in Brussels when they hold talks with European Energy Commission Andris Piebalgs and Czech Trade and Industry Minister Martin Riman, representing the Czech EU presidency.
Business Editor's choice
-
China breaks West's solar monopoly
Some countries in the world, especially Germany and the United States, have made considerable efforts to invest in developing solar energy cells
-
Burberry store spree will cut profit
Trenchcoat maker forges ahead with investment strategy targeting emerging markets
-
Laws needed to spur region bond markets
UAE Central Bank calls for creation of a centralised Sharia board to facilitate the sale of sukuk
