KIEV, June 04. /ITAR-TASS/. Gas talks between Ukraine and Russia will be held on a bilateral level, Ukraine’s senior government official said.
“Naftogaz and Gazprom are holding talks in Berlin. This is Russia’s proposal,” Ukrainian parliament-appointed Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yuriy Prodan said on Wednesday.
Ukraine proposed Russia to return to a discount gas price of $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters. This price was effective in the first quarter of 2014, he said.
“Ukraine said at the talks that the gas price should reach $268.5 per 1,000 cubic meters. Today the talks will continue,” Prodan said.
Answering a question on whether the gas price may reach $370 per 1,000 cubic meters, Prodan said he had heard nothing about such proposal.
On April 30, Ukraine’s debt reached $3.5 billion. On April 1, Gazprom cancelled two discounts and raised the price for Ukraine to $485.5 per 1,000 cubic meters.
Ukraine is a transit country for Russian gas exports to Europe. In order to avoid supply disruption, the consultations within the Russia-Ukraine-European Commission format were started in May.
The throughput capacity of the Ukrainian gas transportation is 288 billion cubic meters at the entrance and 178.5 billion cubic meters at the exit, including 142.5 billion cubic meters to European countries and 3.5 billion cubic meters to Moldova.
Ukraine’s gas transportation system consists of 72 compressor stations, 110 production shops and 1,451 gas distribution stations. The overall length of gas pipelines operated by the company is 38,600 kilometers, including 22,200 kilometers of trunk pipelines and 16,400 kilometers of extensions.