KIEV, January 18 (RIA Novosti) -Ukraine's national natural gas company Naftogaz and trader RosUkrEnergo will sign Saturday all the documents necessary to establish a joint venture to sell gas in Ukraine, a senior official said Wednesday.
Ukrainian Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov said the sides would put pen to paper in line with the trilateral agreement they signed at the beginning of the year with Russian energy giant Gazprom.
RosUkrEnergo, a Swiss-based company that transports Central Asian natural gas to Ukraine via Russia, is owned half by Gazprom subsidiary Gazprombank while the other half is held by Austrian bank Raiffeisen.
"As for the establishment of a joint venture, according to a preliminary agreement, we plan to sign all envisioned contracts Saturday," Plachkov said. He added the venture would probably be called Gazenergo and have an authorized capital of more than $400,000.
The minister said the joint venture would not hold a monopoly on natural gas deliveries to Ukraine. "With the total balance of deliveries and consumption in Ukraine at 76 billion cu m annually, 42 billion cu m will be delivered by Naftogaz while [the remaining] 34 billion by the joint venture," he said.
