News outlet backs away from report on Azerbaijan-Ukraine gas transit deal
KYIV (Reuters) -A Ukrainian news outlet backed away from its report on Thursday that Ukraine had agreed to transit Azerbaijani gas to Europe as a temporary measure after it ends a transit deal with Russia.
Two Azerbaijani energy sources also said the report was incorrect.
Ukrainska Pravda quoted a source in the Ukrainian government as saying that Kyiv understood that the European Union needed time to completely abandon Russian gas and Ukraine was "taking this step to make this transition easier for the EU".
Ukrainska Pravda later issued what it described as a clarification, saying that the government source emphasised that there was currently neither a signed gas-transit agreement between Ukraine and Azerbaijan nor any relevant negotiations.
A source in Azerbaijan's energy ministry and another source at its energy company SOCAR both dismissed the report when contacted by Reuters.
Ukraine's gas-transit deal with Russia's Gazprom is due to expire at the end of this year and Kyiv has said it does not want to renew it amid the war between the two countries.
Some central European countries, however, rely on gas from Russia that crosses Ukraine in a pipeline - having secured an exemption from a European Union ban on Russian gas imports - and they are keen to continue receiving supplies.
An Azerbaijani official has said the EU and Kyiv have asked Baku to facilitate discussions with Russia, with one potential option that Azerbaijan might buy Russian gas for itself to free up some of its own gas to export to the EU.
Ukraine's energy ministry declined to comment.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said last week he was optimistic of a breakthrough in talks to keep gas flowing through Ukraine to several European countries.
Russia's gas-transit volumes via Ukraine are likely to total 14 billion cubic metres for 2024.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Additional reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku; Editing by Mark Potter, Ron Popeski and Rod Nickel)