Ukraine plans to sign tripartite gas agreement by Oct - Kobolev

Ukraine intends to sign a tripartite agreement on gas by the end of September, Head of Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev has said at a press conference in Kyiv.

"We are to move much faster... I think we will manage [to sign the agreement] by the end of September, at the very earliest, in early October," he said.

Kobolev added that given the discount on the gas price, as agreed by the parties, its cost in the fourth quarter will be $227.36 per 1,000 cubic meters.

According to him, at present Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities contain 15.562 billion cubic meters of natural gas.

"If, as planned, we buy another 2 billion cubic meters of gas, then by the end of October we'll have 17.4 billion cubic meters," he concluded.

Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn, in turn, said that according to the agreement Ukraine will not pay extra funds for the high calorific value of gas supplied from Russia.

"This price already includes payments for gas calorific value, which is higher than the usual one... During the last periods the extra fee for gas calorific value was about $7 (per 1,000 cubic meters)," he said.