SOCHI, September 27 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine is ready to help Russia cover its electric power deficit with the spare capacity of its power plants, a deputy energy minister said Wednesday.
In mid-September, Russian electricity monopoly Unified Energy System approved a list of 16 regions in Russia where power supply this winter will be restricted. The Krasnodar Territory in southern Russia that borders on Ukraine is one of Russian regions facing an energy deficit.
"Russia is facing an electric power deficit and has asked us for export help," Oleksiy Sheberstov said. "We have spare power capacity [of 5 million kilowatts at three power plants]."
He said Russia should supply natural gas to the plants in exchange for electric power.
"One power unit with a capacity of 800 MW needs some 130 million cubic meters of gas per month," Sheberstov said.
He also said he hoped talks on this issue would be completed in October.
Russia, which holds the world's largest reserves of natural gas, is Ukraine's main gas supplier. The issue of gas deliveries has become vital this year, following a bitter price row in January, when Russian energy giant Gazprom raised gas prices to world market levels and cut off supplies to its neighbor. It later accused Ukraine of siphoning off Europe-bound transit gas.
Ukraine currently imports a mixture of Russian and Turkmen natural gas at $95 per 1,000 cubic meters. The price formula is based on a European rate of $230 for Russian gas and $60 for the Central Asian republic's gas.
But Gazprom agreed to a 50% price rise, to $100 per 1,000 cubic meters, for its supplies from Turkmenistan this month, which may affect the price for Ukraine.
