Kinakh: Trilateral gas consortium is the best option for Ukraine
While defending its national energy interests, Ukraine should strengthen the search for a balance of interests between suppliers in Russia and Central Asia, Ukraine itself as a transit country, and consumers in Europe, President of the Ukrainian League of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (ULIE) and Regions Party MP Anatoliy Kinakh has said.
"A trilateral gas consortium, given the balance of interests in this triangle, is the best option for us. It would also be acceptable for Europe in the context of forming a transparent energy market there, based on fair competition, without political and economic pressure," the politician's press service quoted him as saying on Tuesday.
Kinakh also said that Ukraine needs to step up its efforts to increase energy security, seeing it as part of a national policy on European integration, as the development of equal mutually beneficial foreign relations with Russia and the CIS.
He said that Ukraine should maintain a meaningful dialog on this issue with Russia and the European Union.
"We have been a member of the European Energy Community for two years, the Verkhovna Rada ratified the Energy Charter Treaty in February 2011, and a number of laws are currently being adopted as part of the fulfillment of our obligations as a member of this powerful union. Therefore, the EU's double standard policy looks a little strange, when the well-known companies of the EU member states - France, Germany and Italy - are actively involved in the construction of the South Stream, which poses a threat to the loss of national energy interests of our country," Kinakh said.
Ukraine has a powerful gas transport system and is an indispensable factor for the energy security of the entire European continent, the politician said. About 70% of all natural gas from Russia was transported through the Ukrainian gas transport system to Europe. In some periods the transit reached 115-120 billion cubic meters per year, with the capacity of the Ukrainian gas transport system being at least 140 billion cubic meters. Although the Ukrainian gas transport system needs a major upgrade, such transportation and transit capabilities should not be lost.
He said that the country also needs to strengthen measures on energy conservation and energy efficiency, the production of its own energy resources, including on the Black Sea shelf, the use of power-generating coal, etc.
"We're a self-sufficient state in terms of energy, and this is recognized throughout the world. We should in no case allow the loss of our status as a strategic transit country, our energy independence, because the issue concerns not only finance and economics, but also political influence. Therefore, we must strengthen our policies on energy efficiency and take consolidated efforts to work on the protection of our national energy interests," Kinakh said.
