Ukraine will fulfill 'gas agreement' until new deal struck with Russia - Azarov
MOSCOW. Sept 5 (Interfax) - Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov is confident that there will be no "gas war" between his country and Russia, and that Ukraine will live up to the current agreement until a new one is reached.
"I want to say firmly and absolutely unequivocally to everyone that no one will ever see any kind of war, including 'gas' with our strategic partner, with Russia. Yes, we have our differences, even though we think these agreements are disadvantageous to use, because of which our people suffer, our country, and the economy generally," Azarov said during an Inter television interview on Sunday. "Nevertheless, until such time as we agree, we will be fulfilling our agreement," he said.
Azarov noted that the decision to reform national stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy was "thought-through, deep," and the government is prepared for this. "The reason is in creating an effective working system for extracting gas and oil, transporting and distributing it," he said.
Producing oil requires lots of money, Azarov said. The government will be earmarking significant budget funds, but the main job is attracting investors.
"How to attract investors? First of all, there needs to be created a company that is transparent, that operates according to market law and according to comprehensible and transparent company rules. And have investors something to offer us? Yes, of course. Ukraine has more than one trillion cubic meters of explored gas reserves. And that is only the explored, there are reserves already prepared. Furthermore, we have roughly eleven trillion cubic meters of gas reserves contained in areas that require, let's say, development. And in conditions where the price of gas is constantly rising, constantly rising, that is very important to us," Azarov said.
