Ukraine to create public JSCs Ukrainian GTS, Ukrainian Gas Storage Facilities on basis of Ukrtransgaz, says premier

Ukraine will create public joint-stock companies Ukrainian GTS and Ukrainian Gas Storage Facilities on the basis of Ukrtransgaz, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said in the parliament on Tuesday.

"The Ukrainian government will create public joint-stock company Ukrainian gas transport system, which will only transport gas under EC directives and according to our liabilities from Ukraine's membership in the Energy Community," he said.

"We're also creating public joint-stock company Ukrainian Gas Storage Facilities. This will be only the operator that will work with all entities in the area of storing and selling natural gas," he added.

Yatseniuk noted that Ukraine, as a member of the European Energy Charter and Energy Community, proposed that the point of accepting Russian natural gas is transferred to the Ukrainian-Russian border and the new agreements are signed.

"As a part of this work we addressed Europe in public, as it is time to change the point of accepting Russian natural gas. Let me noted that now due to unclear reasons Russian gas is accepted by the European Union not on the Ukrainian-Russian border but on the EU-Ukraine border," he said.

The premier said that Gazprom is involved in blackmailing by assigning different prices for natural gas for various EU companies.

"We believe that jointly with Europe we should change the EU energy map, and this is not only in the interests of Ukraine. Gazprom is blackmailing Europe the same way. Gazprom and Russia are trying to offer a better contract to one companies and the worse contract to other companies," he added.

Ukrtransgaz, whose 100% stake is held by Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates a system of trunk gas pipelines and 12 underground gas depots. The Ukrainian gas pipeline system's handling capacity is 288 billion cubic meters at the entrance and 178.5 billion cubic meters at the exit, including 142.5 billion cubic meters channeled to Europe and 3.5 billion cubic meters to Moldova.