Ukraine's new authorities are seeking a new gas deal with Moscow,
offering Russia a stake in the Ukrainian gas transportation system in
exchange for lower natural gas prices, a business paper reported on
Monday, RIA Novosti informed.
According to Vedomosti, Ukraine has already prepared a bill allowing
Russia access to the management of its national gas transportation
network, which currently accounts for about 80% of Russian natural gas
exports to Europe.
Ukraine's new President Viktor Yanukovych needs to revise a
long-term gas deal signed by ex-premier Yulia Tymoshenko and Russian
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in early 2009, which made Russian gas
expensive for Ukraine and further strained Ukraine's meager finances.
Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko is set to visit
Moscow this week with gas issues to top the agenda of his meetings with
Russian officials, the paper said.
However, Russia is unlikely to agree to a gas price reduction
without getting something in return. The main option is to allow Russia
to manage the Ukrainian gas transportation system, the paper quoted a
source close to Boiko as saying.
It is high time for Ukraine to deal with its gas transportation
network as the construction of the Kremlin-backed Nord Stream and South
Stream gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine will marginalize the ex-Soviet
republic, the paper said.
The details of an international consortium to manage Ukraine's gas
transportation system are not yet known but the source said that
Russia, Ukraine and the European Union are expected to have equal
stakes in it.
Ukraine's gas transportation system is Europe's second largest gas
pipeline network and the main route for Russian natural gas supplies to
European consumers. In early 2000, Kiev and Moscow discussed the
possibility of creating a gas transport consortium with the involvement
of European partners to manage and modernize Ukraine's Soviet-era gas
pipeline network.
However, when West-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko came to power
in Ukraine as a result of the so-called "orange revolution" in 2004,
the project was put on hold.
Russia has consistently tried to get a stake in the Ukrainian gas
pipeline network to modernize the system and ensure uninterrupted gas
supplies to Europe. Ukraine has so far resisted these attempts, saying
this would jeopardize its sovereignty.
