KYIV, Sept 15 – Ukraine wants all natural gas pipelines to receive an equal treatment allowing traders to ship Russian gas to markets in the European Union, Naftogaz chief Yuriy Vitrenko said Wednesday.

Vitrenko joined a meeting with Andreas Feicht, State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy of Germany, ahead of Germany’s process to certify the Russian pipeline Nord Stream 2 AG.

"All companies should receive non-discriminatory access, like Gazprom, to all gas pipelines that connect Russia and the European Union. So that European companies can decide for themselves which pipeline they will transport gas through. We explained how it works and why it should be a requirement for the certification of Nord Stream 2 AG and provided all the economic arguments," Vitrenko said.

Vitrenko said this condition is necessary to ensure fair competition in accordance with European legislation, which came from a statement of Germany and the United States on Nord Stream 2.

Vitrenko said some European companies want to receive gas at the Ukraine-Russian border, independently ordering transit capacities through the Ukrainian gas transmission system.

In addition, Ukraine recalled that during the construction of bypass flows for the delivery of Russian gas to the EU, they were announced for additional volumes of gas that should go to Europe.

"Therefore, we say: if this is about additional volumes, then let the volumes that now go through Ukraine be preserved, and not transferred to Nord Stream 2 as Russia says," Vitrenko said.

According to him, Ukraine is ready to negotiate the extension of the transit contract with Gazprom, but this extension in itself is not a sufficient guarantee of maintaining transit through Ukraine, therefore, non-discriminatory access and contracts with European companies are needed.

In addition, preserving transit through the Ukrainian gas transmission system on the proposed terms gives European companies the flexibility to choose for gas supplies, including using the largest in Europe underground gas storage (UGS) facilities in Ukraine for storing gas in the summer.

The top manager of Naftogaz also said that Gazprom is already using gas as a political weapon, artificially limiting gas supplies to the EU, causing a sharp rise in spot prices in Europe, which will subsequently lead to an increase in prices under long-term contracts with Gazprom.

"Therefore, everyone in European countries will suffer from high gas prices, and these high prices are a consequence of the fact that Gazprom is sending much less gas to Europe," he added. (om/ez)