Ukraine pays 3.4% m/m more for gas imports in September

Макроэкономика 10.10.2013 The average price of natural gas that Ukraine imported in September amounted to USD 407 per thousand cubic meters (tcm), Ukraine’s Economy Ministry announced on October 9. That’s 3.4% more than the import price for August and the same price as in July. No volumes of imported gas were disclosed. Earlier this week, Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin declared that he had allowed Ukraine to buy Russian gas for just USD 260/tcm, while later Ukrainian experts clarified that was the price for only a limited batch of gas (5 bcm) that will be bought by private Ostchem to fill gas storage facilities. Alexander Paraschiy: Two weeks ago, Ukraine’s Energy Minister revealed a plan to increase the gas balance in storage facilities by 4 bcm in September, which implies Ukraine was planning to import about 5 bcm of gas last month at a total value of USD 2.0 bln. However, the actual data can differ widely from the plan, on both the upside and downside.