Following a protracted gas dispute, Gazprom and Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz finally signed on Monday a contract on Russian gas supplies to Ukraine for 2009-2019. The first gas started to flow on Tuesday.
"Today, we can make calculations and see that the cost of gas to be bought by Ukraine and, naturally, sold by Gazprom, will stand at some $9.5 billion in 2009," Valery Golubev, a deputy chairman of Gazprom's Management Committee, said at a Ukrainian-Russian forum on bilateral economic issues.
Naftogaz said on Wednesday Ukraine could import 10.5 bcm of gas at $270 per 1,000 cubic meters in the second quarter of 2009, 12 bcm at $219 in the third quarter, and another 12.5 bcm at a price of $162 in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Gazprom will pay Naftogaz some $2.3 billion for 2009 gas transit, Ukraine's UNIAN news agency quoted Golubev as saying.
"Some $2.3 billion is what Gazprom will pay for the functioning of the gas transit system," he said, adding that the gas transit tariffs would grow in the future.
Another senior Gazprom official, Alexander Medvedev, said the rates for Russian gas transit through Ukraine could increase by 50% to $2.5 per 1,000 cu m for 100 km in 2010.
