Gazprom starts new procedure in gas quarrel

moscow/kiev - The Russian gas company Gazprom has begun breaking the contracts with the Ukrainian state energy company Naftogaz. Gazprom has stepped to an arbitration court in Stockholm before that, says the deputy chief of Gazprom, Aleksander Medvedev.

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The step is remarkable because that same Gazprom court ruled last week that Gazprom should pay over 2 billion euros to the Ukrainian customer Naftogaz. The Russian state-owned company would have been negligent with deliveries of gas to Ukraine. According to Medvedev, other arbitrators will deal with the new case.

Ukrainian President Poroshenko has reassured his people about the 'gas quarrel'. He said that Ukraine will not be left out in the cold, because countries in the EU are increasingly pumping gas to Ukraine. Ukraine previously imported 4 million cubic meters of gas per day from the EU and that has now risen to 29 million cubic meters per day, according to Petrosjenko.

The administrator of the Ukrainian pipeline network, Ukrtransgaz, has stressed on Saturday that the latest dispute between Moscow and Kiev over gas has no consequences for the flow of Russian gas to the rest of Europe. The European Commission takes it for granted, and has already offered to mediate.