Following Sunday's talks between the two country's premiers, Russian energy giant Gazprom and Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz signed on Monday a contract on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine for 2009-2019. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said Ukraine would pay $360 for 1,000 of Russian gas in the first quarter of 2009.
"The Ukrainian economy will cope with these gas prices, the more so since the government has drafted a number of compensatory measures," Oleksandr Shlapak said.
He said Ukrainian companies had bought gas at $350 to $400 depending on their location last year. The official added that subsidies also enabled such companies to offer low tariffs to the population.
Viktor Yanukovych, leader of Ukraine's opposition Party of Regions, expressed doubt on Monday that the Ukrainian economy could cope with the higher prices. "We thought a price somewhere between $230 and $250 would be the maximum," he said.
Ukraine paid $179.5 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas in 2008. Russian energy giant Gazprom had insisted on a market price of $450 for 2009.
Shlapak said he felt "disappointed and exhausted" over the results of the Moscow talks between the two countries' premiers.
Shlapak's boss, Viktor Baloga, described the gas agreements reached in Moscow as "nontransparent."
"The gas agreement reached by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin raises a lot of questions ... both due to the nature of bilateral talks and nontransparent decisions," the chief of the Ukrainian president's office said.
The Gazprom chief, Alexei Miller, warned earlier on Tuesday that his company would make Ukraine switch to 100% prepayments if it failed to pay for Russian gas supplies on time.
Another senior Gazprom official, Alexander Medvedev, said the tariff for Russian gas transit through Ukraine could increase by 50% to $2.5 per 1,000 cu m for 100 km in 2010.
"In 2010, the transit rate for Russian gas depending on the forecast of price will grow from $1.7 to approximately $2.5," the deputy chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee said.
