MOSCOW, April 7 (RIA Novosti) - American gas cannot become an alternative to the Russian fuel in Ukraine for the lack of “vacant export objects” in the foreseeable future, said Sergey Kupriyanov an official spokesperson for Gazprom in his interview with TV-channel Rossiya 24 Saturday.
He stressed that the claims of Ukranian authorities about possibly importing liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the US are “political populism” and can have no effect on Gazprom’s contract prices for the country.
Kupriyanov drew attention to the fact that there is no specialized fleet of tankers to transport gas from the US, while creating a fleet like this would take a long time and capacities available at the dockyards. The Gazprom spokesperson pointed to the claims of American authorities saying that US LNG supplies would hardly cost less for Kiev than the Russian gas.
The country’s interim Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk earlier addressed the EU and the US with a request to organize reverse supplies of gas to Ukraine.
“We are waiting for the decision from our European partners, including an operator in Slovakia, who has all the technical capacities to carry out reverse supplies. I hope that the operator won’t give into the pressure forced on him to prevent these supplies,” Yatsenyuk said.
According to various estimates, Ukraine can technically get up to 20 billion cubic metres of gas from Slovakia, Poland and Hungary. According to Kiev’s official calculations, such gas would cost $100-150 less than the Russian equivalent. Yatsenyuk also stated that European gas for Ukraine may cost around $350 per cubic meter.
Starting April 1, Gazprom increased gas prices for Ukraine by $100 per 1,000 cubic meters. As Crimea has officially become a new subject of the Russian Federation, Moscow also insists on withdrawal of a further discount, which the crisis-laden Ukraine received on the condition that Russia's Black Sea Fleet would stay in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. This means Ukraine will have to pay $485.50 per 1,000 cubic meters of gas.
-na/va-
