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Ukraine's gas deficit stands at 8 bln cu m - deputy PM

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Ukraine's natural gas deficit until the end of the year stands at 8 billion cubic meters, the country's deputy prime minister said Thursday.
KIEV, August 17 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's natural gas deficit until the end of the year stands at 8 billion cubic meters, the country's deputy prime minister said Thursday.

"We can definitely say that we currently have a natural gas deficit of about 8 billion cubic meters," Andriy Kluyev said at a meeting on preparations for winter that also highlighted problems facing Naftogaz, the national oil and gas company.

Ukraine is also still to fill its underground storage facilities by winter. Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said Wednesday the country would eventually pump a total of 24.5 billion cubic meters of gas into them.

The issue has worried consumers of Russian gas in Europe, some of which experienced a disruption to supplies at the start of 2006, when Russia briefly cut off supplies to Ukraine, a transit country, over a price dispute. Russian energy giant Gazprom accused Ukraine of siphoning off Europe-bound gas during the spat.

The price of natural gas has been a contentious issue with Russia during West-leading President Viktor Yushchenko's time in office in 2004. It is also an important factor for Ukraine's economy, which is driven largely by the fuel-intensive heavy industry.

At the moment, Ukraine pays $95 per 1,000 cubic meters of mixed gas from Russia and Turkmenistan. The pricing formula is based on a rate of $230 for Russian gas and $60 for the Central Asian republic's gas under a January deal for the first half of 2006.

Yanukovych, who ran in the 2004 presidential and 2006 parliamentary elections on a pro-Russian ticket but has toned down his enthusiasm a notch since beginning his second stint as premier, said Wednesday after talks with his Russian counterpart that the price would remain in place until the end of the year. He also said that next year's price would depend on the market.

Russia's Gazprom energy giant is seeking to raise gas prices for Ukraine and other former Soviet republics to average European levels of $230.

Ukraine has also been in talks on gas projects with Turkmenistan and Iran. No specific results have been reported so far.

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