Vladimir Putin 'agrees to resume pumping gas through Ukraine from Russia' - Telegraph

The Czech EU presidency announced late on Thursday that an agreement over the monitors had been reached with Mr Putin, the Russian Prime Minister, in a surprising turnaround just hours after talks in Brussels had broken down.

However, it remains unclear whether all parties - including Ukraine and the national gas companies involved - have agreed to the deal.

Mr Putin and Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Prime Minister, agreed during a telephone conversation "on the conditions of deployment of the monitoring commission at all locations that are relevant for the flow of gas," a statement from the EU presidency said, adding: "This deployment should lead to the Russian supplies of gas to EU member states being restored."

About 10 monitors, who will be drawn from the European gas industry and the European Commission, are due on the ground on Friday.

See my comment here.

Maybe the EU could ask these questions, now that the urgency is fading?

EU Energy Commissioner Piebalgs, step up and investigate!

Won't happen. It is so convenient to have a Russian bogeyman threatening us all with freezing in the dark.

Gazprom's official statement on the gas crisis

During the period of January 1 - January 5, European consumers received from Ukraine about 170 million cubic metres of gas less then they were due. At the same time 65.3 million cubic metres of Russian gas was simply stolen from the export gas pipe.

On January 5, for the first time in the history of our gas negotiations, the Ukrainian side did not confirm the volume of transit gas to European countries, which, furthermore, was an unprecedented case in the history of the gas industry.

(...)

In accordance with the existing contract Gazprom has filed a lawsuit against NJSC "Naftogaz of Ukraine" with the arbitrary court of Stockholm for ensuring uninterrupted gas transit through Ukrainian territory to European countries. Independent legal advice has recognised the contract as valid.

This means only one thing - Ukraine must provide gas transit through its territory. The transit price at 1.6 US dollars per 1000 cubic meters per 100km is competitive and will not be reconsidered.

(...)

We would like to emphasise that if the interests of the Ukrainian people are considered a higher priority than temporary political interests by the Ukrainian leadership, the population of our sister nation will not suffer from the energy crisis.

And assuming they don't ramp up supply today, what happens next?

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

Dmytro Firtash, the Ukrainian trader who has emerged as a key player in the European natural gas market, was unfamiliar to most western business people until this week. But a small group of British businessmen have known him well for years.

When he appeared last year at a Mansion House dinner at which the Queen presented an award to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, the 40 year old Mr Firtash sat at a table hosted not by Ukrainians, but by JKX Oil and Gas, a British AIM-quoted company with interests in Ukraine.

Its chairman is Lord Peter Fraser, a former Tory trade minister, and the chief executive is Paul Davies, an oil man with extensive experience in the former Soviet Union. Mr Firtash is one of the company's biggest shareholders, controlling a 9.7 per cent stake through a holding company called Benam.