OREANDA-NEWS. On 1 February 2008 was announced, that the National Electricity Regulation Commission approved natural gas prices for Ukrgazdobicha, Chernomornaftogaz and Ukrnafta effective. Ukrgazdobicha will sell gas for UAH 182.0/tcm (USD 36.0/tcm) ex-VAT in 2008. The price for Chernomornaftogaz is set at UAH 289.0/tcm (USD 57.2/tcm). Ukrnafta is to receive UAH 272.6/tcm (USD 54.0/tcm) for its gas, 2.6% more from the previous cap of UAH 265.7/tcm (USD 52.6/tcm). Vladimir Nesterenko: As we expected, the gas price cap was raised, but the announced increase substantially lags our forecast and the new cap is still below Ukrnafta's cost of gas production. We still believe that Privat's chances to get a more material increase are quite high this year. So far, we keep our forecast for Ukrnafta’s 2008 average gas price at USD 97.6/tcm (+85.5% to last year's price and 80.7% higher than the level announced by the NERC). However, the fight won't be easy, and possible delays do put our price forecasts at significant risk.