KIEV, November 16 (Sputnik) —Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has proposed Slovakia to create a gas transit hub together with Poland and Hungary, the presidential press service said Sunday.
"The President said that in order to ensure the reliability of the reverse [gas] supplies the sides have agreed to create a working group that will elaborate on the interconnection system [the system of interconnected gas pipelines]. According to the President, this involves enhancing the cooperation and creating a hub with participation of Slovakia, Poland and Hungary that will allow to turn the gas issue from a mean of exerting pressure to a market mechanism," the press service said, following Poroshenko's official visit to Bratislava.
According to the presidential press office, Petro Poroshenko has stressed the need for the European Union to participate in the hub creation processes.
Poroshenko also stated that Kiev received guarantees that Slovakia will continue its reverse gas supplies to Ukraine.
When Russia cut off gas deliveries to Ukraine over its massive gas debt in June, Kiev was forced to resort to reverse supplies of Russian gas from Eastern European countries. In September, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary supplied Russian gas to Ukraine.
In October, the final round of gas talks between Russia and Ukraine, brokered by the European Union, finished with the signing of a "winter package" agreement securing Russian gas supplies to Ukraine until March 2015.
The agreement stipulates that Russia resumes gas supplies to Ukraine granting Kiev a $100 discount on the price per 1,000 cubic meters of gas, while Kiev assured it would pay $3.1 billion to cover part of its debt to Russia's energy giant Gazprom by the end of 2014.
Early in November, Ukraine's energy company Naftogaz said it had transferred the first $1.45 billion tranche of its gas debt to Russia.
