RT | May 13, 2014
Hunter Biden, son of US Vice President Joe Biden, will join the board of directors of Burisma Holdings, Ukraine’s largest private gas producer. The statement comes amid Ukraine’s growing gas crisis.
“Hunter Biden will be in charge of the Holdings’ legal unit and will provide support for the Company among international organizations,” said the company’s official statement.
Biden, commenting on his appointment, said that his assistance in consulting Burisma Holdings “on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”
“Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine,” he added.
The appointment announcement comes on the same day as Russia’s gas giant, Gazprom, switched to a prepayment system with Ukraine and sent Naftogaz, Ukraine’s gas and oil company, a $1.66 billion gas bill for June supplies. Kiev must pay the bill by June 2, otherwise, it may risk a halt in natural gas supplies on June 3, Gazprom CEO Aleksey Miller said.
Ukraine, currently has about 9 billion cubic meters of gas in storage, and by the winter needs 18.5bcm to keep factories open and households warm, Gazprom Deputy Chief Executive Vitaly Markelov said on Tuesday. In 2013, Ukraine bought 27.7 billion cubic meters from Gazprom.
Under the present terms, Kiev has to pay $485 per 1,000 cubic meters. The price was raised in April from $268.50, when Russia withdrew all discounts it provided for Ukraine after the crisis-torn country failed to pay for gas. According to Gazprom’s CEO, Kiev already owes the company more than $3.5 billion.
Kiev has rejected the new price as “politically motivated” and has been refusing to pay back the debt until Gazprom cancels the “unjustified and unacceptable hike.”
Meanwhile, the US may use the critical energy situation in the country to promote its shale energy in Ukraine.
Hunter Biden, 44, is a partner at Rosemont Seneca Partners, business development and policy advisory firm, and is counsel to Boies, Schiller, Flexner, a New York based-law firm. He is also an adjunct professor on Georgetown University’s Master’s Program in the School of Foreign Service.
Biden is on the Chairman’s Advisory Board for the National Democratic Institute, and is also a director for the Center for National Policy and the US Global Leadership Coalition, an influential, broad-based organization formed by a coalition of 400 American businesses and NGOs, senior national security and foreign policy experts.
Meanwhile, former US President Bill Clinton appointed him an Executive Director of E-Commerce Policy Coordination under Secretary of Commerce William Daley. Biden was also honorary co-chair of the 2008 Obama-Biden Inaugural Committee.
Hunter Biden is also known in the political world. He is on the boards of the World Food Program USA, and the Truman National Security Project, a US organization, based in Washington, D.C, that recruits, trains, and positions specialists across America.
Burisma Holdings, a private oil and gas company in Ukraine which was set up back in 2002 and has grown rapidly since. Its licenses cover the Ukraine’s three key hydrocarbon basins, including Dnieper-Donets, Carpathian and Azov-Kuban.
In 2013, daily gas production amounted to 11.6 thousand BOE (barrel of oil equivalent), a unit of energy based on the approximate energy released by burning one barrel (158.98 liters of crude oil), or 1.8 million cubic meters of natural gas. The company sells these volumes in the domestic market, both via traders and directly to consumers.
