Ukraine ready to import reverse gas at price not above Russian gas fee

Ukrainian national joint stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy is prepared to buy natural gas that will be delivered to the country in the reverse mode from European countries to Ukraine, Chairman of Naftogaz Board Andrey Kobolev told a news conference on Tuesday.

“We are prepared to buy gas from any company that will offer the lowest price,” he said. Kobolev noted that the maximum price at which Naftogaz was prepared to buy fuel was the imported Russian gas price.

The company is negotiating with Germany to become “a direct buyer” of fuel without a scheme of mediators, the Naftogaz board chairman said. Meanwhile, he added that several gas traders had contracts with Germany, so, Naftogaz still hoped to start fuel purchases from that country on the border with Ukraine.

The Naftogaz chief executive noted that his company had turned to the Ukrainian Finance Ministry with an initiative to introduce the VAT tax on reverse gas import transactions, because lack of this dialogue allows gas traders to overstate fuel prices for Ukraine.

In his words, Naftogaz was seeking for “a transparent” scheme of reserve supplies. “We do not want to lose the opportunity of reverse supplies, but this should be done carefully,” Kobolev added.

In his words, Ukraine “was working actively with Slovakia” to import gas from the EU states through that country. Meanwhile, there are some obstacles in this issue, Kobolev noted. “We have a relatively clear-cut action plan, but we cannot announce it yet,” the Naftogaz chief said.

Ukraine has imported gas from Europe through Poland and Hungary in 2012-2013. Private structures acted as gas suppliers and gas import reached 1.977 billion cubic metres in 2013.

From 2014 these supplies are not made, as it was more profitable for Kiev to buy Russian gas.