Gas Negotiations With Gazprom to Continue Later This Week

According to an official press release from Gazprom following their talks with Ukraine Fuel & Energy Ministry on November 8, the next round of gas negotiations between Fuel and Energy Minister Yury Boiko and Gazprom’s Chairman Alexey Miller will be held this week. Last week the two parties discussed issues related to gas pricing, transition to market prices and transportation tariffs, and transit volumes in 2011. Earlier some sources reported that the agreement was reached regarding the price of gas at USD 160/tcm for 2008, but this information was not confirmed by either party. We believe the two sides will manage to reach compromise for next year’s gas price, and welcome the fact that the negotiators are considering a longer than 1 year perspective, rather than annual negotiations.