Naftogaz Ukrainy will begin to reduce deliveries of natural gas to 11 oblasts as of February 13, although it failed to include on its “victim list” the three eastern oblasts that it had earlier fingered as the biggest deadbeats: Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv Oblasts.
NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, the state energy monopolist, issued a statement on February 13 that it was restricting gas deliveries in 11 oblasts to the “technical minimum.” The list includes such debtor oblasts as Lviv, Volyn, Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Zaporizhzhia, Chernihiv, Cherkasy, Kherson, Sumy, Odesa, and Kirovohrad. Yet a month ago, January 4, Naftogaz had published an official notice that the oblasts with the largest number of deadbeat residential consumers were Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv Oblasts, and the City of Kyiv. Later, this announcement was removed from the state company’s site, but some media outlets managed to reprint it anyway (see image). For instance, it can still be found on the now pro-government
Korrespondent.net or on the Dnipropetrovsk news site, Новини Дніпропетровська.
But by February 6, Vice Premier Yuriy Boyko had announced that debt for gas was growing mostly because bills weren’t being paid in western oblasts and other oblasts that do not support the current Administration.
“This is politics!” says Oleksa Hudyma of Zaxid.net, a former energy advisor to ex-Premier Tymoshenko. “We’ve never seen anything like this before, not once. Of course, there were threats that individual regions would be restricted in gas deliveries in teh past, and quite often, but no one actually did it. A month ago, they announced the indebtedness of eastern oblasts. Now, after Yuriy Boyko’s announcement that it is rising in western oblasts, that eariler information has disappeared from the Naftogaz site.”
Deputy Governor of Lviv Oblast Volodymyr Hubytskiy confirmed for Zaxid.net that Lviv Oblast not only is not among the most indebted but has actually fully paid for all gas used last year.
“The gas issue with regard to Lviv Oblast was not even raised today [February 13: ed] at the selector meeting with the Vice Premier,” said Hubytskiy. “Taking into account the difference in rates, discounts and subsidies, Lviv Oblast has fully paid up for all gas delivered in 2013.”
Lilia Kuzik, ZAXID.NET
