Ukraine should receive secure volumes of gas transit though the Ukrainian gas transport system if Ukrainian gas assets are merged with Russian ones,according to Andriy Bodrov,executive director of the Association of Political Consultants.
"The first and main thing is secure volumes of gas pumping through our territory,the second thing is the conditions and guarantees on the upgrade of the gas transportation system,and the third thing is tariff policy. We should know what we're going to receive in exchange for providing access to our system," he said at a roundtable entitled "Who will solve the problems of the Ukrainian gas sector?" organized by the Center for Social and Political Communications in Kyiv on October 5.
He said that the sides have to agree on rights,and transparent and mutually beneficial rules of use of the assets put in the statutory fund of the joint venture.
"If we take a look at the situation,we'll see that the main argument in favor of further talks on the merger of assets is the fact that actually the JV has existed for a long time. Gazprom is the only gas supplier to our pipeline,and our pipeline actually transits all volumes of Russian gas to Europe," Bodrov said.
The director of the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting,Ihor Burakovsky,said that not only Kyiv and Moscow,but also Brussels should be involved in the upgrade of the Ukrainian gas transport system.
