Sergei Kupriyanov Quotes (33 Quotes)

The position expressed by the European Commission today was just the position we were responding to on Tuesday.

The rest we can sell to North America and China.

We are fully prepared to restrict gas supplies to Ukraine after December 31, if there is no contract.

We cannot make special exceptions for Ukraine.

The problem must be solved in the coming days. This conflict absolutely has a negative impact on Russia's image and reputation.

If there is no contract, gas delivery to Ukraine's users will be stopped at 10 o'clock in the morning on January 1.

However, we will not put Ukrainian people into a difficult situation.

The official word from Ukraine was they cannot sign it.

We have information from the ground that shows Ukraine has started illegally siphoning off Russian gas destined for European consumers.

But it is obvious that we are not going back on our word.

We have fully completed work to restore gas supplies to Europe. At this time we are carrying out deliveries to European consumers in full.

We were ready to come to an agreement with the Ukrainian people... Our offer was rejected.

There is a danger that after having proposed to freeze the price for the first 10 days of January, the Ukrainian side will then want to freeze it for another 10 days.

Ukraine rejected the option, which shows that the Ukrainian authorities had planned a conflict in advance, i.e. planned to tap, or simply steal, gas intended for European consumers.

We don't plan to put up with the fact that gas destined for European customers is being used in Ukraine. We understand it's cold, but Ukraine isn't the only place where it's cold. No one gave Ukraine the right to take more gas than contracted.

In and of itself, the proposal is a fairly interesting one, since the volume of our extraction and all of our production indicators depend fairly significantly on where average temperatures are headed. But the details are going to depend on what kind of product is ultimately offered.

We were ready to meet the Ukrainian people halfway ... We received a refusal. That means the Ukrainian authorities were determined to have a conflict from the start, and from January 1 to ... start stealing gas from European consumers.

Literally 40 minutes ago, we received an official answer from the Ukrainian side. The answer said 'We cannot sign it' and that is all.

On Dec. 31, we got a document from Turkmenistan saying that in line with our contract for January, they are shipping 141.7 million cubic meters per day. This volume is the maximum pipelines from Turkmenistan can carry. We were not aware of any gas going to Ukraine. That would have been impossible.

We have signed a contract based on a European price formula, which allows us to begin selling gas at a price of 230 for 1,000 cubic meters starting from January 1.

Ukraine refused, which shows that the Ukrainian authorities planned a conflict from the very beginning, i.e. to tap, or rather steal, gas intended for European consumers.

Rejection of the solutions we proposed will play a very bad havoc on the Ukrainian economy and, which is most unfortunate, on the Ukrainian people.

Unfortunately, the situation with Ukraine's gas tapping above contract levels remains the same.

We believe agreement will be reached when contracts to last throughout 2006 have been signed.

Our action will be tough and resolute if Ukraine siphoned off gas from the transit pipeline without permission.

We just want European countries to understand that we have other alternatives in terms of gas sales. If the European Union wants our gas, it has to consider our interests as well.

The agreement with Moldova for 2006 has not been signed yet.

Yesterday, we made a proposal on how to break out of this very knotty situation. We were ready to meet the Ukrainian people's needs halfway and to provide them with normal conditions of work during the winter, the most complex period of the year.

We understand that it is cold, but it is not only cold in Ukraine. We are currently providing more gas for all our consumers, both in Russia and abroad, and we do not plan to put up with the fact that gas destined for European consumers is being used in Ukraine and is not even reaching the border. Nobody gave Ukraine the right to take more gas than the contracted volume.

The price for natural gas and other energy resources has increased several times in recent years. And leaving the price for Ukraine unchanged or slightly raising it would be unreasonable.

We believe it will be extremely difficult, or impossible, to be more precise, for the Ukrainian authorities to explain to their people the reason for such a short-sighted policy.

Moreover, Ukraine will be stealing gas from the European Union, which it is so eager to join. All responsibility for shortage of Russian gas supplies to European customers will lie completely with the Ukrainian side.

Surprisingly, as of December 30, they Ukraine have not said how much natural gas they want Russia to supply next year. They simply cannot give a figure, cannot say how much gas they need.