Naftogaz Raid Included Investigation On Romanian-Bound Gas

When Ukrainian special services raided State-owned natural gas corporation Naftogaz on Wednesday, one of the objectives was to investigate a quantity of gas bound for Romania, Hungary and Poland and allegedly taken by Naftogaz from the private intermediary RosUkrEnergo, according to the electronic edition of the Moscow Times. Ukraine"s security service SBU is investigating Naftogaz for having confiscated 6.3 billion cubic meters of gas from RosUkrEnergo, according to Valery Khoroshkovsky, deputy head of the SBU, who added that the gas had been contracted for delivery to Romania, Poland and Hungary.

"We need to talk about the creation and existence of a large group of public officials, including several governmental leaders, who made a rather illegal transactions," Khoroshkovsky told the Ukrainian Parliament. According to NewsIn, he did not name the company that had been stolen from, but Premier Yulia Tymoshenko said it was RosUkrEnergo. The company had been brokering deals between Gazprom and Naftogaz for years until it was excluded from the contract signed directly with the Russian gas giant in January, with Tymoshenko"s blessing.

Tymoshenko"s on Wednesday stated that the Customs Service had decided that 11 billion cubic meters of gas from the Naftogaz underground storage facilities should go to this company. According to Tymoshenko"s, Naftogaz had bought the gas from Gazprom. The contract signed in January stipulated Gazprom"s agreement to transfer a 1.7 billion USD receivable from RosUkrEnergo, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov stated. It is possible that Naftogaz may have chosen to collect the debt in the form of gas equivalent, he added.

"This is a battle for 11 billion cubic meters of gas, which now belongs to Ukraine. The questionable company RosUkrEnergo wanted the gas, but the Government will not allow that to happen," Tymoshenko said, who had previously accused rivalling President Viktor Yushchenko of being interested in keeping RosUkrEnergo as an intermediary.

On Wednesday, it was not clear whether the investigation concerned only a part of the 11 billion cubic meters of gas. Ukrainian billionaire Dmitry Firtash, who holds 45% in RosUkrEnergo, stated that the disputed gas had already been contracted for delivery to Poland, Romania and Hungary. The company"s spokesperson on Wednesday repeated that RosUkrEnergo had not agreed to give Naftogaz part of the gas they had. RosUkrEnergo is 50% owned by Gazprom, 45% by Dmitry Firtash and 5% by Ukrainian businessman Ivan Fursin.