Ukraine dramatically increased offtake of gas from Russia at the end of last week, the Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex (CDU TEK) reported.
In the first ten days of April, Naftogaz Ukraine steadily reduced offtake from 84 million cubic meters on April 1 to 33 mcm on April 10. But on April 17 offtake began to grow dramatically again and shipments reached a two-month high of 114.9 mcm on April 19.
It was reported earlier that due to problems with payment for gas supplies, Russia’s Gazprom cancelled the discount that was in effect in the first quarter and the price for Ukraine jumped from $268.50 per 1,000 cubic meters to $385.50 on April 1. On April 2, Russia renounced the Kharkiv agreement and re-imposed an export duty on gas shipped to Ukraine, automatically raising the price to $485.50.
