Ukraine would welcome Russian participation in a new gas production campaign. This was declared by the head of the Ukrainian government Mykola Azarov on Monday September 5 on the press-club meeting in Kiev.
The Russian premier says that a Russian participant may obtain a license on production of a total amount of one trillion cubic meters of gas.
At present the mass-media are reporting a ‘gas war’ which is going on between Russia and Ukraine. According to the contracts signed in 2009 the target gas price for Kyiv comprised 450 dollars and the transit rate for Moscow – 1.7 dollars.
Ukraine is not really happy with this state of things. A proof to this is the criminal case against the ex-prime minister of the country Yulia Timoshenko which is being prosecuted for having given out the directives to sign the existing gas contracts.
According to the recent statements of the Ukrainian prime-minister, there will be no ‘gas war’. Kyiv will continue sticking to its agreements with Moscow. All clauses of the signed documents will be executed, Azarov said.
At the same time on September 2, the Ukrainian prime-minister announced that the government decided to wind up national joint-stock company Naftogaz of Ukraine (which represents Kyiv in the gas relations of the two states). According to Mykola Azarov Naftogaz will be replaced with the two new companies with which Gazprom (which represents Russia in the gas agreements) will have to sign new contracts.
