| Russia Confirms New Oil Transit Deal with Ukraine |
[Jan. 22nd, 2010|02:34 pm] |
"Russia confirmed on Tuesday a new deal with Ukraine that foresees a 30-percent increase in tariffs for Russian oil transits via Ukraine to Europe.
""The agreement has been signed,"" said Irina Yesipova, spokeswoman for Russian Energy Ministry, quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency.
Earlier in the day, Ukraine's state energy company Naftogaz said that Russia had agreed to the rise in transit tariffs next year.
""An agreement was reached last night, the rate has been increased by 30 percent, with transit remaining at (the 2009 level of) 15 million metric tons of oil,"" Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said.
Naftogaz's announcement came hours after Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who was on a trip to the Far East, expressed hope that Ukraine would abide by its obligations to keep Russian oil supplies flowing to Europe despite a dispute over transit fees.
Ukraine sits on a major transit route for oil pumped to Eastern Europe via the Druzhba pipeline. It also transits about 80 percent of Russian gas shipments to the European Union.
Russia, which supplies a quarter of EU's gas, cut off deliveries to Ukraine for nearly two weeks in January amidst a price and debt dispute, leaving tens of thousands of Europeans without heating gas in the depths of winter
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