MOSCOW, March 23 (Reuters) - A first attempt by Ukraine's new government to secure lower Russian gas prices ended without visible success on Tuesday, although Kiev might refresh talks at a meeting of the countries' prime ministers later this week.
Russian state-run gas export monopoly Gazprom <GAZP.MM> said in a statement late on Tuesday that its chief executive, Alexei Miller, met Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Yuri Boiko in Moscow to discuss Russian gas supplies to Ukraine.
Gazprom said that Ukraine took less Russian gas in the first quarter of 2010 than stipulated by its contractual obligations and that, by next winter, Ukrainian state energy firm Naftogaz should have enough gas in storage to meet domestic demand and transit needs for Europe.
The visit by the Ukrainian delegation was the first attempt by the new leadership of President Viktor Yanukovich to secure a revision of what Ukraine says are onerous prices for Russian natural gas. [ID:nLDE62M0E6]
Ukraine’s economy relies hugely on gas imports from Russia, but the country has struggled to pay its bills under a 10-year agreement worked out in January 2009 that brought an end to a dispute that severed midwinter gas supplies to parts of Europe.
Yanukovich was quoted on the presidential website on Monday as saying he wanted a series of bilateral agreements to be prepared for signing in time for Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Kiev in mid-May.
"This was just a try; the beginning of a dialogue," a source in Russia’s Energy Ministry told Reuters about Tuesday’s meeting between Gazprom and the Ukrainian delegation headed by Boiko.
Yanukovich’s press service said earlier on Tuesday that the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers, Vladimir Putin and Mykola Azarov, would meet in Moscow on Thursday, without elaborating.
On Tuesday, Medvedev and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin, who oversees the energy sector, were attending a meeting in western Siberia. (Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk in Kiev, editing by Robin Paxton and Jim Marshall)
