Gazprom : Ruling will prevent Gazprom from halting Ukraine transits - PGNiG exec

WARSAW (Reuters) - A ruling by the European Union top court effectively forcing Gazprom to decrease volumes it sends via the Opal pipeline means the Russian gas producer will not be able to halt gas transfers via Ukraine in the coming months, an executive at Polish gas firm PGNiG said on Tuesday.

"Thanks to forbidding Gazprom from monopolising the Opal gas pipeline, the Russian side will not be able to fully halt gas transits to Europe via Ukraine, at least in the coming months," PGNiG Deputy Chief Executive Officer Maciej Wozniak said in a company statement.

In coming months a deal between Russia and Ukraine on gas transfers is set to expire.

Wozniak said he hoped that the EU court ruling would mean that neither Europe nor Ukraine would suffer gas supply disruptions.

Europe's top court on Tuesday overruled an EU decision allowing Russia's Gazprom to ship more gas via the Opal gas pipeline which links its Nord Stream pipeline to Germany.

(Reporting by Agnieszka Barteczko; writing by Marcin Goclowski; editing by Jason Neely)