Court Rules To Increase The Amount Of Gas Ukrgaz-Energo Can Deliver?

A Kyiv court has ruled in favor Ukrgaz-Energo in its suit against the National Energy Regulation Committee (NERC) about the amount of gas the former can sell on the Ukrainian market.  Earlier the NERC gave Ukrgaz-Energo a license for the delivery of 5.04 bln cm of gas per year for five years. Ukrgaz-Energo took the NERC to court claiming the amount was too small. Concorde Capital: Things are developing in line with our expectations (see our ANB from March 10, 2006). Although the ruling was not disclosed in detail, we believe it will improve RosUkrEnergo’s power in the upcoming round of gas negotiations. Nevertheless, in the next round of negotiations with Gazprom, we expect Ukraine to attempt to trade Ukrgaz-Energo’s ability to access local market (through granting full-scale license for selling 32 bln cm) in exchange for leaving the gas price unchanged.