Russia could charge Ukraine $230-250 for gas in 2009

Daily Kommersant reported this morning that National Bank of Ukraine Supervisory Council Chair Petro Poroshenko said that the cost for Russian gas at the border could rise to USD 230-250 per tcm in 2009. Poroshenko said this price is in line with the plan to gradually raise rates to market prices. Vladimir Nesterenko: Although we expected the gas price to reach USD 320/tcm next year, Poroshenko’s forecast sounds reasonable, given substantially lower oil prices than those we used in our projections. Based on next year’s average Brent price of USD 60/bbl and assuming a 3-year transition period, we expect gas price for Ukraine to end up somewhere in the range of USD 220-260/tcm.