Russia, Ukraine Move Ahead With EU Talks to Avert Supply Cut

This story originated in VOA’s Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Environmental Protection Oleksiy Orzhel attends a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium Sept. 19, 2019.Earlier news reports had indicated that Ukrainian Energy Minister Oleksiy Orzhel had hoped to reach a deal with his Russian counterpart, Alexander Novak, at Thursday’s meeting.The talks follow a Sept. 10 decision by the top European Union court in Luxembourg to reimpose limits on gas flows via the Opal pipeline, a spur that connects Germany with the Nord Stream pipeline system operated by Russia’s state-owned Gazprom.Gazprom is pushing to complete the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project in 2020, after which it may no longer need Ukraine’s pipelines for transit. Ukraine’s loss of roughly $3 billion gas-transit fees — about 3% of national GDP — would be a substantial blow to the Ukrainian economy.Moscow currently meets a third of Europe’s gas needs — 14 EU countries receive more than 50% of their gas from Russia — much of which flows through Ukraine’s Soviet-era pipelines.Gazprom had been seeking full access to the Opal pipeline and received 80% of its available capacity after a 2016 European Commission ruling.The Sept. 10 decision will reduce Gazprom’s Nord Stream flows by 12.4 billion cubic meters a year, said PGNiG, Poland’s state-run oil and gas company, the country’s largest. 
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