A Ukrainian delegation will travel to Moscow on Tuesday to discuss a gas agreement between the two countries, the energy ministry and the state energy company Naftogaz said. The visit will be the first attempt by the new leadership of President Viktor Yanukovich to get a revision of what the Ukrainians say are onerous prices for Russian natural gas.
The former Soviet republic relies hugely on gas imports from Russia, but it has struggled to pay its gas bills under a 10-year agreement worked out in January 2009 and the Yanukovich team would like softer terms. Its monthly bill for March alone is about $700 million, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said last week, describing the existing agreement as unjust.
"A Ukrainian delegation headed by minister Yuri Boiko will visit Moscow tomorrow for negotiations, including talks on gas issues," a Fuel and Energy Ministry spokesman told Reuters on Monday. "We will raise the question of getting a lower price," First Deputy Prime Minister Andriy Klyuev said on ICTV television last on Sunday, saying present terms were unacceptable.
A Naftogaz spokesman said the delegation would include the company's new chief, Yevhen Bakulin. Besides discussing pricing and other energy issues, it was possible the delegation would also float Yanukovich's idea of creating a gas consortium with Russian and European Union participation aimed at modernising pipeline infrastructure.
Talk of Russian participation in such a scheme was a non-starter under Yanukovich's pro-Western predecessor Viktor Yushchenko, who also fell out with Moscow because of his Ukrainian nationalist policies and pursuit of Nato membership.
Ukraine pays European prices for gas after former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko concluded a deal in January 2009 to end a three-week gas row that led to supply cuts to Europe. The EU receives one-fifth of its gas from Russia via Ukrainian pipelines and has been affected by disputes between the two former Soviet republics after Moscow cut supplies.
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