Ukraine's state oil and gas company Naftogaz has predicted a reduction in the price of Russian natural gas in the second quarter of 2012, Naftogaz Deputy CEO Vadym Chuprun has said.
"I think that that [the price] will be slightly lower than in the first quarter [about $416 per 1,000 cubic meters]," he said in Kyiv on March 26.
Previously, Naftogaz Ukrainy predicted that the average annual price of Russian gas would be $415.77 per 1,000 cubic meters this year – $416 in Q1, $418 in Q2 and Q3, and $413 in Q4.
Ukraine’s State Statistics Service says the average price for the gas the country imported in January was $416.90 per thousand m3.
Ukraine disagrees with the existing gas-purchase contract between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Russian gas giant Gazprom and insists that it be revised.
Ukraine wants a number of amendments be introduced into the contract pertaining to the basic gas price and the inclusion in the contract of a discount dependent on the amount of gas purchased, as well as a seasonal discount. Kyiv also wants changes made that concern the gas pricing formula, which is at present pegged to gas oil, which Ukraine does not use in its energy balance.
Russia has said more than once that lowering the price is only possible if Gazprom becomes an owner in Ukraine’s natural gas sector.
According to the State Statistics Service, Ukraine boosted natural gas imports 22.4% last year to 44.801 billion cubic meters (bcm). The price of that gas increased by 49.5%, to $14.046 billion.
Ukraine imported 40.002 bcm of Russian gas worth $12.361 billion in 2011, along with 4.780 bcm of Central Asian gas worth $1.685 billion.
Naftogaz Ukrainy unites oil and gas production assets in Ukraine, and is the country’s gas transit, underground gas storage, and oil pipeline transportation monopoly.
