OREANDA-NEWS. On January 19, 2009 at his briefing President's Representative on Energy Security Bohdan Sokolovsky made some comments on calculation of Russian gas price for Ukraine, reported the Official website www.president.gov.ua.

According to him in the talks on gas cooperation, Ukraine would like Russian side to consider examples of other European countries. Although for each country the calculation of base price and any rebates is done separately, it is their national gas balance that makes up real price for gas for each of them. In its energy balance Ukraine is similar, for example, to Hungary and differs from, for instance, Romania with the latter consuming only 17% of Russian gas out of total amount.

Using the example of Hungary, Bohdan Sokolovsky continued that in the first quarter of 2009 this country is to be paying around 400 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of gas with the price galling quarterly to 270 dollars. Transit of gas to Hungary through Ukraine costs 1.7 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers, meaning 22 dollars for the amount. Therefore using netback calculation the price of gas intended for Hungary at Ukrainian-Russian boarder equals to around 248 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters.

This means, said Bohdan Sokolovsky, that Russia's suggested base price for Ukraine of 450 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters of gas and minus 20% real price (360 dollars) is discriminatory. Instead with all the calculations the real price should be around 199 dollars.

Furthermore, according to Bohdan Sokolovsky, Russia demands keeping last year's transit fee of 1.7 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers in 2009 thus violating parity principle regarding prices for gas and gas transit fees. At the same time transit fees in European countries in 2008 equaled to around 4 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters per 100 kilometers

It is clear said President's Representative on Energy Security, that Ukraine as major buyer of Russian gas (around 55 billion cubic meters yearly) and the most powerful transit partner for Russia (about 80% of supply to Europe) has grounds to expect economically substantiated price for both imported gas and the transit fees.