Turkmenistan To Ukraine - Sorry No Gas For You.

Turkmenistan has officially acknowledged that it is currently impossible to supply gas directly to Ukraine. Following accusations by Ukraine’s Fuel and Energy Ministry that Turkmenistan was failing to deliver gas to Ukraine, the Turkmen government announced that it had not taken gas supplies to Ukraine into account, as Kyiv has not agreed with Russia on transit. Turkmenistan’s Minister of Oil and Gas said that Turkmenistan had repeatedly asked Ukraine to agree with Gazprom on the terms of Turkmen gas transit through Russia to no avail. Concorde Capital: In February-March of this year Ukrainian officials complained that Ukraine was not receiving Turkmen gas according to a direct contract signed in December 2005. At first glance, it seemed that the only stumbling block was Ukrainian debt for Turkmen gas delivered in 2005. However, Turkmenistan’s new claims have come out of the blue, as we believed that Naftogaz had a contract for gas transit in 2006 with RosUkrEnergo (RUE), which transported Turkmen gas to Ukraine last year. If in fact there is no such agreement, tensions with Turkmenistan are likely to escalate and possibly draw Ukraine into another round of gas negotiations. WATCH for the official Ukrainian response to Turkmenistan’s statement.