Russia is unlikely to make concessions to Ukraine as Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov arrives on Thursday in Moscow to seek a new gas deal with the Kremlin, a respected daily said on Wednesday.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will meet Azarov to discuss a wide range of bilateral issues, including in the energy sphere.
Ukraine has offered Russia a stake in its state gas transportation system, involving the EU and Ukrainian companies. The system currently accounts for about 80% of Russian natural gas exports to Europe.
In return, Kiev wants cheaper gas prices.
However, Moscow has repeatedly indicated that the creation of the consortium, which would give the Russian gas giant Gazprom direct access to Ukraine's gas market, would not necessarily mean lower prices for Ukraine.
"We are absolutely satisfied with the gas deal [signed] on January 19, 2009, and we have to understand what Russia will get in return before giving the go-ahead to making amendments," Kommersant quoted a source in the Russian government as saying.
"If we lose $3 billion here, then we will have to earn it elsewhere," a source in Gazprom told Kommersant.
However, Azarov himself seems somewhat more enthusiastic.
"We expect that a bilaterally beneficial draft project [on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine] will be worked out and we will jointly implement it. We should certainly find a compromise solution, which would make the development of Ukraine's economy possible," he said in Kiev on the eve of the meeting.
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, who came to power in February after narrowly winning a presidential runoff, has been seeking to revise a long-term gas deal signed by ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko and the Russian prime minister in early 2009.
Last year, Russia reduced its gas price for Ukraine by 20%, but in 2010, a market price, which fluctuates depending on oil prices, was introduced. In the first quarter of this year, Ukraine will pay $305 per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas. The price will grow to $320 in the second quarter due to rising oil prices.
Ukraine's gas transportation system is Europe's second largest gas pipeline network and the main route for Russian natural gas supplies to European consumers. In early 2000, Kiev and Moscow discussed the possibility of creating a gas transport consortium with the involvement of EU partners to manage and modernize Ukraine's Soviet-era gas pipeline network.
The project was put on hold when West-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko came to power in Ukraine in 2004.
Russia has made repeated attempts to obtain a stake in the Ukrainian gas pipeline network to modernize the system and ensure uninterrupted gas supplies to Europe. Ukraine has so far resisted, saying a consortium with Russia would jeopardize its sovereignty.
MOSCOW, March 25 (RIA Novosti)
