27/4/2014: Ukraine-Slovakia Agreement on Reversed Shipments of Gas

Per today's reports (see: http://www.rosbalt.ru/main/2014/04/27/1262169.html), Ukraine reached an agreement with Slovakia for reverse-delivery of natural gas via Vojany-Uzhgorod pipeline. Shipments can start in October with maximum delivery of 3 billion cubic meters per annum, and from March 2015 the capacity can be raised to 10 billion cubic meters per annum.

As the article notes, from April 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the decree annulling Kharkiv agreements that provided a discount on gas price for delivery to Ukraine of USD100 per 1,000 cubic meters, so starting from Q2 2014 Ukraine delivery is priced at USD385.5 per 1,000 cubic meters from USD268.5

Following this, on April 3, head of Gasprom Aleksey Miller said that taking into the account arrears on past gas deliveries, Ukraine gas deliveries will be priced at USD485 per 1,000 cubic meters.

Here is my earlier note on Ukrainian arrears relating to Russian gas deliveries and Ukrainian Government debt held by Russia: http://trueeconomics.blogspot.ie/2014/04/1042014-game-of-chicken-ukraine-debts.html.