Ukraine will welcome in the New Year without gas conflicts

The year 2010 will become the first year in Ukraine’s history that will begin without gas problems and conflicts, because the Cabinet of Ministers will activate the necessary financial resource to ensure payments are made to Russia's Gazprom.

"We will find the means, we will be able to activate the financial resources, we will be able to work somewhere, however, it is not our task since local administration authorities are subordinate to the President, but we are working directly with them, working with the mayors, helping them with credit resources to ensure timely payments for gas," First Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Turchynov has said.

He is ruling out the possibility of a gas conflict with Russia in the beginning of 2010 because the effective agreement determines the price for natural gas based on a formula.

"During the difficult times of the gas conflict at the start of the year, we developed an agreement that defines a formula approach to the price formation for gas, and this is the first year when we do not have such rush, such stress, that the year is coming to an end and we need to come to an agreement with Gazprom somehow again, we need to do something, but it is unknown what prices would be offered to us. We have entered into the system where gas price formation, as well as transit price formation is pegged to a formula, therefore we are not only expecting an end to 2009 without any worries, but we are also very optimistic about the future – the next year," the First Vice Prime Minister said.

As is known, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko holds the same view. There will be no crisis over the the supply of Russian gas to Ukraine in the beginning of 2010, she claims. "We – Ukraine and Russia – for the first time will celebrate the New Year and Christmas of 2009/2010 in absolute tranquility. Everyone will be at home, I for sure will not be at the airport, or in Russia at Gazprom," Yulia Tymoshenko assures.

The Ukrainian-Russian agreement on gas supply, which was signed in 2009 for 10 years, will help to avert a gas crisis, the Prime Minister added.