Gazprom: Ukraine Not Willing to Negotiate on Gas Prices

Ukraine does not seem willing to negotiate on gas prices for 2012, a spokesperson for Russian gas giant Gazprom has said.

"Ukraine has lost time for discussion of the contractual amounts for this year," spokesman Sergey Kupriyanov said.

"Unfortunately, we are having to remind our Ukrainian friends once again that the conditions of delivery of gas on the market are determined only by a contract and that they cannot be altered unilaterally by one letter or another. It seems that our Ukrainian partners will not be holding negotiations in 2012 on the level of gas prices. Apparently, it suits them. And they will try to reach agreement on the volumes for 2013 in accordance with the procedure established in the contract."

The spokesperson was responding to an announcement by state-run gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy and Ukrainian Minister for Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Boiko that the country is seeking to almost halve current gas imports from Gazprom.

Naftogaz notified Gazprom by letter that it would be reducing its gas imports to 27 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas for 2012 as opposed to a contracted 52 billion cubic metres.

However, Mr. Kupriyanov said that Naftogaz's contract only allowed for a maximum reduction of 20 per cent.

"According to the contract, a change in annual volumes cannot exceed 20 per cent," he said. In 2012, as everyone knows, the contractual supply volume stands at 52 bcm and cannot be cut to 27 bcm even in theory."