Ukraine hopes Russia will not change gas price
KYIV/MOSCOW, Feb 24 (Reuters) – Ukraine hopes the price it
pays for Russian gas will not change, Acting Energy Minister
Eduard Stavytsky said on Monday, following the overthrow of
Viktor Yanukovich as president.
“We hope that the price (of Russian gas) will be stable,”
Stavytsky told Reuters by telephone.
Russia agreed in December to reduce the gas price for Kyiv
to $268.50 per 1,000 cubic metres, a cut of about one third from
around $400 which Ukraine had paid since 2009. The reduction was
part of a wider financial deal Moscow signed with Kyiv after
Ukraine spurned an EU trade deal.
Two Gazprom sources told Reuters the company had no
immediate plans of returning to the previous gas price for Kyiv,
which is seeking around $35 billion in foreign assistance over
the next two years.
“But this is not Gazprom to decide,” one of the sources
said.
A Gazprom official declined to comment on the issue of price
but said gas transit to Europe, which is getting around a
quarter of its gas needs from Russia, is being pumped “in full
volumes”.
The last dispute over gas pricing between Russia and Ukraine
caused shortages in Europe over the winter of 2009.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has so far been silent on
events in Ukraine, keeping the question of the gas price – and
the wider deal to offer $15 billion in Russian aid to Ukraine –
open.
Ukraine consumes about 55 billion cubic meters of gas each
year, and more than half of this amount is imported from Russia.
Gazprom exported 161.5 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe
last year.
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