Eric Watkins
Senior Correspondent
LOS ANGELES, Feb. 14 -- Russia and Ukraine have resolved their disagreement over the supply, pricing, and transit of Central Asian natural gas following a meeting between the leaders of the two countries.
"We regret that problems of the kind are still popping up," said Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said, "Our partners told us that they would soon start repaying the debts."
Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko explained that the debt would be repaid at last year's price of $130/1,000 cu m, rather than this year's price of $179.5/1,000 cu m. "We agreed that Ukraine would [on Feb. 14] start repaying the debt of last November-December," he said.
Ukraine's debt for gas supplied by Russia since Jan. 1, 2008, reportedly is nearing $500 million, while the country's overall gas debt exceeds $1.5 billion. Ukraine is said to have received 1.7 billion cu m of Russian gas for which it has not yet paid.
Meanwhile, OAO Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Neftegaz Ukrainy, which plans to settle the gas problem by the end of February, will join with his firm to establish two new companies involved in supplying gas to Ukraine.
"We are forming a new structure of Ukrainian gas imports, which includes the establishment of a new gas importing company on 50:50 terms. Fifty percent will belong to Gazprom, and another 50% to Neftegaz Ukrainy," he said.
In addition, Miller said, "we will form a company to sell gas on the Ukrainian domestic market, again on 50:50 basis."
While Gazprom and Neftegaz Ukrainy will soon start working on a new formula of gas supplies, the disputed RosUkrEnergo will remain the only supplier of Central Asian and Russian gas to Ukraine.
Last week, Russia threatened to cut off all supplies of its natural gas to its neighbor after incoming Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko suggested increasing the tariffs for Russian gas transiting her country and dispensing with RosUkrEnergo (OGJ Online, Feb. 8, 2008).
Contact Eric Watkins at [email protected].