You're reading: Naftogaz head learns of Gazprom proposal on gas price from social network

Naftogaz Ukrainy has not received any proposals from Gazprom regarding the settlement of existing disputes between the two companies, including those concerning gas prices for Ukraine, the head of the Ukrainian gas company, Andriy Kobolev, said in a commentary.

“I am learning about a proposal concerning the price of Russian gas for the very first time via Facebook. The world has seriously changed,” Kobolev said on his Facebook page about the announcement of Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak about his readiness to set the price for supplies of gas to Ukraine at $385-386 per 1,000 cubic meters, without waiting for a court decision.

Based on his talks with European Commissioner for Energy Gunther Oettinger, Novak said that now the parties are in arbitration proceedings, which are complicating the negotiations on the price and, according to business practices, Russia should continue to keep the price at $485.5 for 1,000 cubic meters.

Starting in April 2014, Russia raised the price of gas for Ukraine from $268.5 to $485.5 for 1,000 cubic meters. Ukraine said it would not pay such a high price.

Since the beginning of May, Russia and Ukraine along with the European Commission have held trilateral talks, which were not successful. Gazprom complete cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on June 16.

Naftogaz Ukrainy filed suit in the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce on June 16, 2014, demanding that a fair and market price be set on the gas that Gazprom supplies to Ukraine. The suit also contains a requirement that overpayment be recovered from Gazprom for gas that the Russian monopoly supplied to Naftogaz since 2010. According to the Ukrainian company, such overpayment amounts to $6 billion.

On the same day Gazprom filed a suit with the court against Naftogaz for the recovery of debt amounting to $4.5 billion for gas that was supplied but not paid for.

The lawsuits that Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom filed against each other in Stockholm arbitration court were combined into one case. Kyiv is expecting an interim decision from the court on the gas contracts before the end of this year.