| Abstrakt: |
KYIV. March 11 (Interfax) – Ukraine is planning to raise its natural gas transit tariffs by as much as 100%, Ukraine's Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn said on Wednesday. He also said Ukraine expects the price for Russian gas to fall to at least $270 per thousand cubic meters, possibly lower. He said Kyiv is ready to discuss the possibility of buying a fixed volume of natural gas from Russia as a part of the "summer package," but only if the prepayment condition is removed. Meanwhile, Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Andriy Kobolev said Ukraine now plans to accumulate 19 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in its underground gas storage facilities by the start of the next heating season and he welcomed Gazprom's apparent readiness to make concessions at future trilateral gas talks, saying that the Russian gas giant is now unable to dictate conditions. However, there still remains no fixed date for the next round of talks. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER] |
