The Naftohaz Ukrainy national joint-stock company has officially requested that the Gazprom gas company (Russia) reduce the basic volume of natural gas that is stipulated in the contract for export of natural gas to Ukraine from 52 billion cubic meters to 33 billion cubic meters in 2010.
Anatolii Podmyshalskyi, the head of Gazprom’s department of operations with near-abroad countries and director of the Gazprom Sbyt Ukraine company, announced this to journalists.
“They are making an official request. Various messages are presently being sent. They want to reduce [gas imports] from 52 billion cubic meters to 33 billion cubic meters in order to [reduce their gas import volume by 20%] to about 27 billion cubic meters or less,” Podmyshalsky said.
According to Podmyshalskyi, Naftohaz Ukrainy placed an order for importation of 14 billion cubic meters of gas in the period of October-December in order to reach the 32 billion cubic meters stipulated in its contract with Gazprom.
“They placed an order with us for 14 billion cubic meters for the fourth quarter. On balance, we have 12.5 billion cubic meters. They [placed an order for 14 billion cubic meters of gas] in order to reach 32 billion cubic meters,” he said.
Podmyshalskyi forecasted that Ukraine would import natural gas at the price of USD 205-210 per 1,000 cubic meters in the fourth quarter.
As Ukrainian News earlier reported, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko has said that the plan to import about 32 billion cubic meters in 2010 would not violate Naftohaz Ukrainy’s contract with Gazprom.
Tymoshenko and Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announced at a meeting in Poland on September 1 that they had reached agreement on payment for the quantities of imported natural gas that is actually consumed in Ukraine instead of the quantities stipulated in the contracts for supply of natural gas to Ukraine.
Ukraine plans to import 27-33 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas in 2010 instead of the minimum of 42 billion cubic meters it contracted to import.
This year, 32-33 billion cubic meters of natural gas is expected to be imported. This equals the quantity stipulated in the import contract (taking account of a 20% discount).
Ukraine violated the terms on the volume of quarterly gas imports stipulated in the agreement on supply of natural gas to Ukraine.
