Ukraine paid 5% less for Russian gas in July
KYIV. Sept 20 (Interfax) - Ukraine imported 2.134 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia and Europe in July 2013, paying a total of $854.875 million, the Ukrainian State Statistics Service said.
Most of the imports came from Russia - 1.856 million cubic meters worth $745.168 million, with 377.795 million cu m coming from Europe (Germany, Hungary an Austria) for $109.706 million.
Ukraine paid an average of $401.5 per thousand cu m for the gas from Russia, 4.8% or $20.2 less than in June. It imported 2.6 times more gas from Russia than in June.
Ukraine paid $394.9 on average for gas from Europe, including $388.6 from Germany, $389.6 from Hungary and $405.7 from Austria.
Ukraine imported a total of 12.463 billion cubic meters of gas worth $5.189 billion in January-August 2013, including 11.524 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia worth $4.819 billion, 625.396 million cubic meters of gas from Germany worth $243.209 million, 214.231 million cubic meters of gas from Hungary worth $85.868 million and 98.821 million cu m from Austria worth $40.095 million.
The overall imports were down 33.5% in physical terms and 34.6% in value from January-July 2012.
Ukraine imported gas from Russia only in January-July 2012.
Ukraine has started to import gas from Europe, operating its pipelines in reverse mode, due to plans by Russia's Gazprom to reduce transit of gas for European customers via Ukraine and failure to negotiate a lower price for Russian gas.
Ukraine began importing gas from Germany through Poland in November 2012 under an agreement with Germany's RWE Supply & Trading GmbH. It began importing gas from Hungary in April 2013 and is negotiating deliveries from Romania and Slovakia.
According to the forecast natural gas balance for 2013 approved by the government, Ukraine expects to import 27.3 bcm of gas this year, including 18 bcm from Russian Gazprom, 8 bcm from Dmitro Firtash's Cyprus-registered OstChem and 1.3 bcm from RWE Supply & Trading GmbH.
Naftogaz Ukrainy, OstChem, VETEK and DTEK are importing gas from Russia and Ukraine this year.
Naftogaz and OstChem imported 32.927 bcm from Russia and Germany for $14.025 billion last year.
