Ukraine will exceed normal offtake levels of Russian natural gas
in January but will compensate Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom for the
overdraft, Oleksiy Ivchenko, chairman of the state energy giant
Naftogaz Ukrayiny, said in a television interview Thursday.
"Taking into account the cold weather in January, I believe we
will take more gas than the normal level," Ivchenko said.
The comments confirms claims made by Gazprom earlier this week
that Ukraine has been taking gas that was bound for other European
customers of Gazprom. Ivchenko did not disclose any figures of the
expected overconsumption of Russian gas in January. Nor did ne give
details of the possible compensation that Ukraine will pay Gazprom.
The revelation may trigger a new wave of tensions between Kiev
and Moscow as Gazprom will probably seek to charge Ukraine $230 per
1,000 cu m for extra gas used, a price that Ukraine had been earlier
rejecting as excessively high. Gazprom said on Thursday that Ukraine
has consumed an extra 326-mil cu m of gas between Jan 19 and Jan 25.
This amount of gas would be worth almost $75-mil at prices suggested
by Gazprom.
Updated on: Jan 27, 2006
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