MOSCOW - Gazprom will continue gas talks with Ukraine later this week after Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich failed to secure agreement at the weekend with his Russian counterpart, the head of Russia's gas company said on Monday.
Pricing rows between Moscow and Kiev, located on the main transit route for Russian gas to Europe, have led in the past to supply disruptions in the European Union, which is seeking ways to reduce its energy dependence on Russia.
Around 80 percent of Russian gas exports shipped shipped through Ukraine to Europe. Russia, which covers a quarter of Europe’s gas needs, aims to export up to 155 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas this year, up from 138.6 in 2010.
"Yes, there is progress, but it’s premature to talk about concrete figures and parameters… Yesterday we agreed that the next working meeting with our Ukrainian friends will take place before the end of the week," Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said.
At the weekend, Yanukovich met Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin — who are likely to swap roles after the presidential elections in March — to negotiate a lower price for Russian gas, a hardly affordable commodity for the limping Ukrainian economy.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Tigipko told Reuters in Washington that Kiev will not launch a "gas war" if it fails to successfully negotiate a lower price for the Russian gas.
Ukraine’s economy relies heavily on energy produced from natural gas. In 2009, Kiev agreed to import no less than 33 billion cubic metres of gas per year from Russia at a price linked to world oil and oil product prices.
In the fourth quarter of this year, the bill is expected to approach $400 per thousand cubic metres, a level Kiev says is unreasonably high.
