KIEV, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Gas prices for domestic consumers could rise again in January 2007, an official from Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz said Friday.
"The next gas price rise for Ukrainian consumers will probably happen on January 1 next year," said Yuriy Voitovych, a deputy department head.
The announcement came following the Ukrainian Justice Ministry said Thursday that gas prices for households and commercial consumers would grow 85% from July 1, the second time since the start of the year. In May, prices rose by 25%.
Starting from July, utilities would have to pay 686 hryvnias ($137) and households 548 hryvnias ($109) per 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas.
Naftogaz has consistently sought a rise in domestic prices.
In April, the company complained that it had to sell gas to households at a rate 60% lower than it purchased gas at from a trading company. Naftogaz said it could not afford to subsidize gas prices because its losses in the first quarter had hit over $500 million and could reach $1.5 billion in 2006.
Voitovych said he hoped the price would be influenced by economic rather than political considerations, adding that a relevant National Electricity Regulation Commission decision was required for such moves.
About 200,000 people took to the streets of major Ukrainian towns Wednesday to protest the price rises. And mayors in some Ukrainian cities earlier in June demanded that the government compensate consumers' losses and called price rises unjustified.
Ukraine's prime minister in waiting, Yulia Tymoshenko, said Thursday that she would seek to achieve lower prices for Russian and Central Asian gas supplies once she returned to the premier's chair.
But, Russia's industry and energy minister responded Friday that Ukraine should first honor the existing natural-gas deals with Russia rather than try to revise them.
In February, Russia increased prices for Ukraine from $50 to $95 per 1,000 cubic meters, in a compromise that ended a bitter pricing row between the two countries at the start of the year, when Russia briefly cut off supplies to its former Soviet neighbor
Russian gas monopoly Gazprom, Ukraine's main gas supplier, said recently it might raise the gas price for Ukraine further from July 1.
