Ukraine's state gas firm Naftogaz has officially asked Russia's Gazprom to amend a number of clauses from the gas contracts signed by the companies in January 2009, according to Bohdan Sokolovsky, the Ukrainian president's commissioner for international energy security.
He said on Tuesday that the two companies had held such talks for around two months.
“Naftogaz Ukrainy submitted very concrete proposals on the amount of gas, the gas transit volume under another contract, and the price formation, i.e. the transit rate and the gas price,” he said.
Sokolovsky said that “Ukraine’s state holding has yet to receive any positive response from Gazprom to these proposals.”
He said that Ukraine is concerned over recent statements by Russian officials that Gazprom may fine Naftogaz for importing less gas than contracted earlier.
He said that according to the calculations of Ukrainian and Russian experts, sanctions that could be imposed on Naftogaz were estimated at $5.9 billion in the first nine months of 2009.
