MOSCOW, September 5 (RIA Novosti) - Natural gas prices for Ukraine will gradually increase, Russian presidential aide and G8 sherpa Igor Shuvalov said Tuesday.
Ukraine now imports a mixture of Russian and Turkmen natural gas at $95 per 1,000 cubic meters. The price formula is based on a rate of $230 for Russian gas and $60 for the Central Asian republic's gas, but Russia will pay $100 per 1,000 cu m of Turkmen gas from 2007.
"We said that we would trade in our gas with everyone according to a single formula," Shuvalov said. "Sooner or later we will reach a single standard, and the faster the better."
Gazprom [RTS: GAZP] said Tuesday it agreed to pay $100 per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas from Turkmenistan in 2007-2009, an increase of 53%.
The Russian energy giant currently pays $65 per 1,000 cubic meters for natural gas supplies from the Central Asian country, which threatened to cut off supplies to Russia if an agreement on the new price of $100 was not reached by September.
Ukraine was involved in a pricing spat with Gazprom over the winter that led the Russian energy giant to temporarily cut off supplies in January. The dispute was settled with an agreement signed January 4.
Shuvalov also said Russia would supply natural gas on foreign contracts in full. "Gas on foreign contracts will be supplied in full," he told a briefing.
Gazprom said the agreement with Turkmenistan was reached during a meeting between chief executive Alexei Miller and President Saparmurat Niyazov.
The parties also agreed that additional Turkmen gas supplies would total 12 billion cubic meters in 2006, and 50 billion cubic meters a year in 2007-2009, Gazprom said.
The parties also reached agreement that the price of gas supplies would remain unchanged until the end of 2009, and that by July 1, 2009 they would negotiate an adjustment on the basis of European gas prices for long-term deliveries, Gazprom said.
