Firtash plans to supply 8 bcm of gas to Ukraine in 2013
Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash plans to supply 8 billion cubic meters (bcm) of natural gas to the Ukrainian market in 2013.
"We have a balance and we have agreements on 8 bcm of gas for next year," he said at an enlarged meeting of the presidium of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine initiated by national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy in Kyiv on Monday.
Firtash said that he was not ready to answer if he was able to supply gas to the Ukrainian market in large volumes for the needs of consumers (and not only for the chemical companies that belong to him).
Firtash's Ostchem Holding Limited (Cyprus) planned the same volumes of imported gas supplies to Ukraine in 2012. The forecast balance for 2012 includes imports of 27 bcm of gas by Naftogaz Ukrainy and 8.124 bcm by Ostchem Holding Limited.
The forecast balance for supplies and distribution of natural gas in Ukraine has not yet been approved for 2013.
Earlier Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych said that Naftogaz Ukrainy, feeling itself under pricing pressure, had been compelled to reduce its orders for Russian gas. He said that the state holding intends in 2013 to buy 18 billion cubic meters (bcm) versus the 26 bcm of this year. To offset such a significant decrease in the import of Russian gas next year, plans call for buying about 5 bcm of gas from Europe via a reverse scheme, which will provide the country with savings of around UAH 2 billion.
Ukraine is dissatisfied with the price of the Russian gas it buys under the contract from 2009. Russia thinks that Ukraine reducing its purchase to the amount it has announced violates the contract, and could take the matter to court.
Naftogaz imported Russian gas for around $416 per 1,000 cubic meters in Q1, some $425 in Q2, and about $426 in Q3. The Q4 price is projected at $430 per 1,000 cubic meters.
The State Statistics Service figures indicate that Ukraine imported 40.002 bcm for Russian gas for $12.361 billion in 2011.
