Ukraine benefits from gas deals with Russia

Kiev expects to save up to 7 billion U.S. dollars in annual cost from the deals for cheaper Russian gas agreed Tuesday with Moscow, a senior Ukraine official said Wednesday. "It would be a significant retrenchment for (the benefit of) our economy and the state budget," Energy and Coal Industry Minister Eduard Stavytsky told a press briefing. Stavytsky said Ukraine plans to buy 30 to 33 billion cubic meters of gas from its neighbor next year at the price of around 268 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. Under a 2009 deal between Ukraine's Naftogaz and Russia's gas giant Gazprom, which pegs the price of gas to that of oil, Kiev was obliged to buy gas from its neighbor at 500 to 520 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. In April 2010, Russia agreed to cut the price by 100 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters in exchange for a 25-year extension of the lease of its Black Sea fleet on Ukraine's Crimean peninsula. In the fourth quarter of 2013, Russian gas is sold to Ukraine at a price of 410 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters. On Tuesday, Moscow agreed to cut the price of its gas supplies to Kiev by a third from the current cost.