You're reading: Ukraine to start importing gas from Germany through Hungary in 2013, Boiko says

  Ukraine will start to import natural gas from Germany through Hungary from January 1, 2013, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Yuriy Boiko said on Inter television channel on Friday.

“The current shipments of gas (purchased from Germany’s RWE) go through the territory of Poland. Starting from January 1, the supplies will go through the territory of Hungary… We have done a great job, have held talks with the countries that have received permission from regulators and bought the capacities,” he said.

Boiko noted that the price of gas purchased from RWE was lower than the price of gas, which Ukraine’s national gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy bought from Russia’s gas giant Gazprom.

“The price is constantly changing, because there we are tied to the price of spot gas… We hope that this summer the price will be lower by $100, since in summer the prices on the spot market are always lower,” the minister said.

According to his estimates, the purchase of 5 billion cubic meters of natural gas in the west will save Ukraine around $2 billion.

The minister said all the gas purchased under this scheme will be supplied to heating providers.

As reported, Ukraine started shipping natural gas from Europe in November.

Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy and Germany’s RWE signed a contract for the delivery of about 1 million cubic meters of natural gas per day during November-December of this year.

Per a two-month contract the parties will be able to discuss a long-term agreement on the delivery to Ukraine of natural gas by reverse flow.

Experts say that Ukraine can buy on European spot markets and import though Slovakia up to 20 billion cubic metes of natural gas a year, starting in 2015-2016.