Gas Price Negotiations To Start In Summer; Security Of Supplies To Improve

Ukrainian Fuel and Energy minister, Yuriy Boiko, announced that negotiations for 2008 gas prices will start in summer. He also said that Ukraine has a unique chance to make gas supplies to Europe more secure than ever, by accumulating more than 30 bcm of gas in the country’s storages. Boiko noted that, thanks to this year’s warm winter, Ukraine had 14 bcm of gas in storage at the end of the heating season, presumably meaning that it won’t be a problem to store up to 17 bcm more before the next heating season. Vladimir Nesterenko: Things look positive on the gas storage front, but gas price negotiations again contain intrigue. The current political tensions may irritate the Kremlin enough to cause another increase.