Gazprom: Ukraine signs gas monitoring deal

[January 12, 2009]  KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Ukraine signed a deal Monday to allow independent monitors to track natural gas shipments from Russia. It did not insist on its previous conditions, opening the way for a resumption of gas supplies to Europe.

Russia's state-controlled gas giant Gazprom announced that the EU-brokered deal was signed Monday morning during talks in Kiev. After several hours' delay and mixed signals sent by the Ukrainian government, state gas company Naftogaz confirmed the agreement had been signed.

But Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky said the conditions that Russia had rejected were still part of Ukraine's side of the agreement, though they were now contained in a documents that was not legally binding document.

Ukrainian officials left with the document for Brussels, where European Union energy ministers were meeting Monday. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Russian government ministers who oversee the energy sector were also due in Brussels.

Russia has said the EU-brokered deal on monitors must be signed before it will restart supplies to other European countries. Russia stopped supplying gas to Ukraine on Jan. 1 amid a price dispute and on Wednesday also stopped shipments to countries beyond Ukraine because it claimed Kiev was siphoning off the gas. Ukraine has denied this.

"As soon as they (the monitors) are at the control points, and we are sure that they can control the transit of our gas, Gazprom will pump gas to Ukraine's gas transit system to be shipped to European customers," Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a Cabinet meeting Monday, the state RIA-Novosti news agency reported.

The two countries remain deadlocked over the price Ukraine should pay for gas and the amount Russia should pay for transporting gas to Europe through Ukraine's pipelines.

Ukraine first signed the agreement on monitors early Sunday but then attached what it called a "declaration" with additional conditions. Russia said this voided the agreement.

Russia supplies about one-quarter of the European Union's natural gas, 80 percent of it shipped through Ukraine, and the disruption has come as the continent is gripped by freezing temperatures.

Sales of electric heaters have soared across eastern Europe, and thousands of businesses have been forced to cut production or even shut down.

The European Commission strongly urged Russia to restore gas supplies.

"There are no more reasons, no more excuses to delay the resumption of the gas supply," EU spokesman Johannes Laitengerger said Monday.

Teams of EU monitors were deployed at five major gas transit stations on Ukraine's border with European countries Monday and were ready to track the flow of gas, according to Naftogaz. Another group was deployed at a unit in Russia near the Ukrainian border and more teams were waiting for permission to work at other sites on the Russian side of the border.

EU monitors will also be in Kiev and Moscow, at the pumping centers for Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz and Russia's state-run gas monopoly Gazprom.

Ukrainian officials said it would take three days for gas to reach Europe once Russia resumes supplies.

[Associated Press; By MARIA DANILOVA]

Associated Press writers Lynn Berry and Douglas Birch in Moscow contributed to this report.

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