Russian
natural gas monopoly Gazprom and Ukraine`s national energy company
Naftogaz have signed a long-term cooperation deal envisaging direct gas
supplies without any intermediaries, a Ukrainian daily said on
Thursday, RIA Novosti reported.Under the deal, Ukraine will
receive Russian natural gas directly from Gazprom, Zerkalo Nedeli
reported. Naftogaz will be the sole importer of Russian natural gas.
Ukraine has imported around 55 billion cubic meters of gas annually in
the past few years.
RosUkrEnergo, which was established in July
2004 on a parity basis between Gazprom and Naftogaz, has since been the
exclusive supplier of natural gas to Ukraine. RosUkrEnergo supplies
Ukraine with most of the natural gas it gets from Gazprom and delivers
the rest to Europe.
The newspaper reported that the contract
does not fix gas volumes to be bought from Gazprom in 2009 or beyond,
nor does it give any approximate price. However, the two parties will
stick to the previous $179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters until the end of
this year.
Under the deal, Ukraine and Russia have to sign a
contract for gas supplies to Ukraine and a bilateral gas transit
agreement by November 1.
The deal also prohibits Naftogaz from
re-exporting Gazprom gas unilaterally, but the two parties are allowed
to supply some volumes to Europe jointly.
Russian Prime
Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Yulia
Tymoshenko, agreed at the start of October on a memorandum on direct
natural gas supplies from Gazprom and Naftogaz without intermediaries.
The parties are to move to market prices for gas over the next three
years.
Ukraine expects Russia to fix a gas price for 2009 after
signing contracts with Central Asian countries, which pump natural gas
to Ukraine via Russia.
RIA Novosti
