Russian gas should cost Ukraine a little over $200 per 1,000 m3 - Kyiv
KYIV. Sept 19 (Interfax) - Russian gas should cost Ukraine a little more than $200 per thousand cubic meters, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boiko said on Inter television.
"Of course, the price should be such for us," Boiko said when asked if it was realistic for Ukraine to obtain a price for Russian gas of "$200 and a bit" per thousand m3.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich said during a recent interview that the price of Russian gas for Ukraine should be at the level of the price for Germany minus the cost of transporting it from the Russian to the German border.
"If Gazprom and the Russian partners want to make as much on us as they do on Germany, then that should be the price. The purchase volumes roughly correspond to ours: Germany buys 33 billion [cubic meters], we've bought 40," Boiko said. "It's true on our part that we think the contract is oppressive and should be reconsidered," he said.
Russia "partially recognizes, actually, that the pricing is asymmetrical from the guarantee of transit, which we have not received," he said.
But, he added, some unnamed Russian representatives have in private talks expressed understanding of Ukraine's position.