You're reading: Russia trying to artificially raise gas price for Ukraine via Nord Stream 2 project – Naftogaz

The Russian Federation is trying to achieve increasing gas prices and depriving Ukraine of transit revenues through the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, the director for development at National Joint-Stock Company Naftogaz Ukrainy, Yuriy Vitrenko, considers.

“Russia cannot afford Ukraine a great competitive advantage in the price of gas, therefore it is building a bypass pipeline to Germany, from which Ukraine will buy gas paying for transportation,” he told journalists in Kyiv.

Vitrenko explained that, in his opinion, sooner or later the European Commission will be forced to insist on Gazprom’s fulfilling European competition rules. This will lead to the fact that Russian gas on the way to Europe will be sold under the principle “price at the hub minus transportation” rather than “price at the hub plus transportation” as it is done now.

“In turn, this will lead to the fact that Russian gas in Ukraine should be cheaper than Russian gas in Germany. And much cheaper. If now its price in Germany stands at $140 (per 1,000 cubic meters), then given its transportation in Ukraine it now costs $160-170, but if to exclude transportation the figure will be $70 in Ukraine,” he said.