MOSCOW, December 23 (RIA Novosti) - Gazprom Deputy Board Chairman Alexander Medvedev told a news conference Friday that the Russian energy giant expected Ukraine to make a decision about its proposals on Russian natural gas supplies and transit via Ukraine today or tomorrow.
Medvedev said Gazprom had sent Ukraine proposals Thursday on contracts for gas supplies and transit that the company said must be signed separately.
Medvedev said the initial price for Ukraine for January 2006 would be $230 per 1,000 cubic meters.
"In the next 1.5-2 years, the price could drop to $160 per 1,000 cu m if prices for oil and oil products go down," Medvedev said.
Gazprom will not be supplying Ukraine with natural gas if the contracts have not been signed by the end of the year, he said. "No contracts, no deliveries."
He said Gazprom had no intention to deliver natural gas to Ukraine in return for gas transit either.
Asked whether Ukraine would be able to satisfy domestic demand by using reserves in its underground storages, Medvedev said the natural gas in those reserves was meant for export and that the reserves did not contain extra amounts of gas for the domestic market. However, he added that Gazprom did not have accurate data on the amount of natural gas being kept in Ukraine's underground facilities.
He also suggested Ukraine could afford to pay the price.
Medvedev said that if the contracts were not signed this year and Ukrainian officials carried out their threat to tap natural gas from the transit pipeline, Kiev would be stealing gas and would be held responsible.
Medvedev said Ukraine should not blackmail Russia by refusing to sign the gas transit contract. "Ukraine has signed and ratified the economic charter treaty, so it may not do so," he said.
Gazprom has already reached an agreement with other former Soviet republics, Georgia and Armenia, to sell natural gas at $110 in 2006. Medvedev explained that the price had been agreed upon taking into account average European prices and transportation costs. Moldova will be buying Russian gas at $160. Negotiations with these countries are being completed at the moment.
Medvedev said Gazprom was ready to share control of the international consortium, created in 2002 to manage and develop the Ukrainian gas transportation system, with Ukraine on an equal basis. The parties had considered including European participants in the consortium, but in September 2005, Kiev said it was not feasible.
Medvedev also said Gazprom would do everything possible to ensure the steady supply of natural gas to its West European customers.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Borys Tarasyuk said in Lithuania Friday that the higher gas prices proposed by Russia were not economically rational and ran counter to bilateral judicial commitments.
He said Ukraine could choose to raise the issue of Russia's inappropriate use of facilities and land plots leased to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the Crimea, a Ukrainian autonomy.
"We have enough arguments to put on the negotiating table, but they do not directly concern gas," the minister said. "We should not link the deployment of Russian bases on the Black Sea to gas deliveries to Ukraine."
