1 Aug 2013 10:01

Wholesale Gazprom gas prices for industrial consumers to rise 3% on Aug 1

MOSCOW. Aug 1 (Interfax) - Wholesale prices for Gazprom gas supplied to industrial consumers increased 3% from the level effective July 1 as of August 1.

A draft of the corresponding instruction was posted on June 14 on the federal authorities' portal for drafts of normative legal acts.

The explanatory note attached to the document states that in May the regulator made changes to a provision defining the formula for gas prices. These changes allow for adjusting the decreasing coefficient for the next quarter of the calendar year if in the previous quarter there was a major deviation of gas prices calculated by the formula from the annual average prices calculated based on average parameters for annual changes in wholesale prices set by the government.

"Considering that the deviation of wholesale gas prices from the parameters set by the Russian government was considerable in the second quarter of this year, there is a need to adjust the decreasing coefficient as of August 1, 2013," the FTS said.

In light of this, the regulator has prepared a draft decision to adjust the decreasing coefficient from 0.5373 to 0.565048 in order to establish smoother changes in wholesale gas prices in the course of the calendar year and bring them in line with the parameters set by the government.

With this adjustment to the decreasing coefficient as of August 1, 2013, wholesale prices calculated according to the formula will be set at the average value of the corridor set by FTS of Russia decree No. 266-e/2, dated November 13, 2012 for the second half of 2013," the regulator said.

The draft decree also calls for recalculating the floor and ceiling for wholesale gas prices as of August 1, 2013.

In early June the FTS approved a 15% increase in Gazprom wholesale gas prices for industrial consumers as of July 1 compared to the level in the second quarter of 2013. At the end of February, the regulator decided to lower Gazprom wholesale gas prices for industrial consumers by an average of 3% as of April 1 compared to where they were on January 1.

The official forecast for the growth of gas prices is 15% for the year.