Ukraine’s national energy company Naftogaz has sent evidence to Gazprom it claims disproves accusations from the Russian company that it siphoned off natural gas bound for Europe, Naftogaz said in a statement on Monday.
“Ukraine did not siphon off a single cubic meter of gas at the expense of Russian gas transit to Europe. We are stating this officially and this is confirmed by corresponding documents,” Naftogaz Deputy Board Chairman Vadim Chuprun said.
“We fulfilled clearly and in full all of our contractual obligations for the transit of Russian natural gas to Europe,” he said.
Last week, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller accused Ukraine of siphoning off up to 40 million cubic meters of Russian natural gas for Europe over several days in February, which caused financial and reputational damage to Gazprom.
Chuprun also said Naftogaz had sent a new letter to Gazprom with documented proof that the Russian gas export monopoly had failed to supply from 24 to 110 million cubic meters of gas to Ukraine’s gas transit system in 21 days in February.
“From February 1 to February 21, the (Ukrainian) gas transportation system did not receive 1.247 billion cubic meters of gas. This is what Europe did not receive,” he said.
Several European countries said in early February they had faced shortfalls in Russian natural gas supplies, as a severe cold spell hit Europe, with temperatures plunging to below 30 degrees Celsius. Italy resorted to crisis measures to reduce gas consumption and maintain supplies to domestic customers.
