Gazprom restates terms for Naftogaz

Adjusting the price "our Ukrainian friends" pay for natural gas would be considered once its energy company merges with Russia's Gazprom, an executive said. Alexei Miller, chief executive at Russian gas company Gazprom, welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart Yuri Boiko to Gazprom headquarters in Moscow to discuss bilateral energy ties. Kiev is pushing for revisions to natural gas contracts with Gazprom. Opposition leader and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko is under investigation for charges stemming from a gas deal with Russia she helped broker in 2009. Gazprom has tried to persuade Ukraine that a merger with Ukrainian energy company Naftogaz might be the best course of action. "The gas price adjustment for our Ukrainian friends may be considered upon the merger of Gazprom and Naftogaz," said Miller in a statement. Kiev said the current price mechanism is unfair. Opponents of the merger in Kiev complain it would move the country too close to its former patrons in the Kremlin. Ukraine transits 80 percent of all Russian natural gas bound for European consumers through its Soviet-era pipeline network.