SEVASTOPOL - The average annual price of Russian natural gas procured by Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy will be $440 per 1,000 cubic meters this year, Naftogaz's CEO Yevhen Bakulin said at a ceremony marking the commissioning of the modern self-elevating floating drilling rig (SEFDR) Petro Hodovanets on May 16.
"This year, we plan to buy 27 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas at an average annual price of $440 per 1,000 cubuc meters," he said.
Each month, Ukraine shells out around $1 billion for imported Russian gas, which greatly surpasses the price of the acquired modern SEFDR, with the help of which Naftogaz counts on significantly expanding Ukrainian gas production, Bakulin said.
"Ukraine pays around $1 billion each month for imported natural gas. For the year, that ends up being an amount equal to the cost of 28 drilling rigs like Petro Hodovanets. Therefore, at the current natural gas price of $425, the first billion cubic meters produced with the help of this rig will compensate for its cost," he said.
In January of this year, Naftogaz imported $808 million worth of Russian gas. In February it paid $1.3 billion, and in March – $865 million.
In the first quarter of last year, the price Naftogaz paid for imported Russian gas was $264 per 1,000 cubic meters. In the second quarter it was around $297, in the third – about $355, and in the fourth – roughly $400. In the first quarter of 2012, Naftogaz was charged around $416, and in the second – about $425.
According to Ukraine’s State Statistics Service, the country imported a total of 40.2 bcm of gas from Russia last year, worth a combined $12.361 billion.
With the help of its parent company Naftogaz, Chornomornaftogaz is carrying out a large-scale modernization of its production facilities, which will allow it to reach a qualitatively new level of shelf development in the Black and Azov Seas, as well as significantly boost gas and oil production and discover new hydrocarbon deposits in the shortest possible time.
Naftogaz Ukrainy includes the country’s largest oil and gas production companies. It holds the monopoly on natural gas transit and storage as well as for oil transportation via pipeline within Ukraine.
