Ukraine imported 2.254 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas from Russia and Germany for $958.842 million in February, paying $390 per 1,000 cubic meters for gas from the latter and $426.1 per 1,000 cubic meters from the former.
According to the State Statistics Service, Ukraine imported 2.204 bcm of gas from Russia for $939.116 million and 50.579 million cubic meters (mcm) from Germany for $19.726 million.
The growth of the average import price for Russian gas in February as compared with January ($408.6) is attributable to a sharp drop in gas purchases by national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy. Another Russian gas importer to Ukraine, businessman Dmytro Firtash’s OstChem Holding, Ltd. of Cyprus, substantially increased imports in February.
Naftogaz Ukrainy has said that payments to Gazprom for natural gas imported in February amounted to $162 million. OstChem Holding imported about $777 million worth of Russian gas that month.
Ukraine imported 4.651 bcm of natural gas from Russia for $1.939 billion and 97.294 mcm for $37.945 million from Germany in the period January-February.
Naftogaz and OstChem imported 32.927 bcm of natural gas from Russia and Germany for $14.025 billion in 2012.
According to the State Statistics Service, natural gas imports to Ukraine in January-February 2013 decreased by 23.1% compared to the same period in 2012. In monetary terms, the volume of imports for the two months of this year decreased by 23.2% ($596.164 million) compared to January-February 2012 ($2.573 billion). In January-February last year, Ukraine imported natural gas only from Russia.
As reported, because of Russian Gazprom’s plans to reduce gas shipments to Europe via the Ukrainian gas transportation system and Moscow’s unwillingness to reduce the gas price for Ukraine, Kyiv began using its gas transportation facilities in reverse to bring in gas from Europe.
Ukraine from November 2012 began importing natural gas from Germany through Poland under agreements with RWE Supply&Trading GmbH (Germany). From April 2013, Hungary started natural gas supplies. In addition, Ukraine is in talks with gas transportation operators in Slovakia and Romania on the possibility of pumping natural gas into the gas transportation system of Ukraine.
According to Naftogaz Ukrainy Deputy Board Chairman Vadym Chuprun, Ukraine plans in 2013 to sign contracts for natural gas reverse supplies from Germany through Hungary and Slovakia in the amount of up to 7 billion cubic meters.
Ukraine in the person of Naftogaz Ukrainy and OstChem Holding Limited in 2012 imported 32.927 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia and Germany for $14.025 billion.
