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Ukraine can suspend part of gas transport system – Azarov

Azarov said Ukraine sustained big losses due to the fact that the gas transport system had not used in full

KIEV, September 17 (Itar-Tass) — Ukraine can suspend part of its gas transport system, Prime Minister Nikolai Azarov said on Saturday.

Speaking at an international forum in Yalta, Azarov said Ukraine sustained big losses due to the fact that the gas transport system had not used in full.

“Its capacity is 150 billion cubic metres of gas annually. There are three pipes of 50 billion cubic metres. Each pipe pumps about 80 billion cubic metres,” the Ukrainian prime minister said.

To this end, Azarov urged the European Union to determine means of Russian gas transit. “I’ve told European Commissioner Fule: let’s take your position,” Azarov said, adding that the Ukrainian gas transport system was better than alternate gas routes because it had its own storage facilities.

The Russian gas price for Ukraine should be slightly over 200 US dollars per 1,000 cubic metres, Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuri Boiko said.

Asked whether it is real to get a price of “200-odd dollars”, Boiko replied: “Of course precisely this price should be.”

“If Gazprom and Russian partners want to earn on us as much as on Germany, the price should be as such. The volume of purchases approximately conforms to ours: Germany buys 33 billion cubic metres of gas, we purchased – 40,” the minister said. “Truth is on our side: we believe that the contract is neck-breaking, and it should be revamped.”

Boiko said that the Russian side “partially admits: indeed, pricing is asymmetrical from transit guarantee which we received”.

The minister stated at the same time that Ukraine would purchase only 12 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia and Azerbaijan in 2014.

“We buy 40 million cubic metres of gas from Gazprom this year. We shall buy already 27 next year. We shall start purchasing 12 billion cubic metres of gas in three years' time. Out of the total, we shall receive five billion from Azerbaijan and seven billion – from the Russian Federation,” the minister said.

Boiko noted that a programme on cutting gas consumption and boosting its own production is being implemented in the country from April 2011.

Earlier Boiko reported that the Russian gas price for Ukraine would be 398-402 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the operating contract.

According to Naftogaz Ukrainy Company, the price of imported Russian gas amounted to 264 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres in the first quarter of 2011, in the second – around 297 dollars and in the third – 355 dollars per 1,000 cubic metres.

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