Ukraine resumes gas imports through Poland in late October
Ukraine in late October resumed imports of natural gas through Poland, which were suspended at the beginning of this month.
According to Polish operator Gaz-System S.A., about 1.4 million cubic meters of gas was supplied through Poland to Ukraine on October 26, and about 1.3 million cubic meters on October 27.
The application for October 28 was 3.2 million cubic meters of gas.
As reported, Naftogaz halted reverse gas supplies from Poland in October 2013 due to the high price of that gas. The conditions were that this gas should cost less than Russian gas.
Ukraine paid just $2 less for European gas than Russian gas in August 2013, the State Statistics Service said.
Ukraine paid an average of $399.30 per 1,000 cubic meters for the gas from Russia and $397.30 on average for gas from Europe, including $388.60 from Germany, $405.90 from Hungary and $404 from Austria.
Ukraine has started to import gas from Europe, operating its pipelines in reverse mode, due to plans by Russia's Gazprom to reduce transit of gas for European customers via Ukraine and failure to negotiate a lower price for Russian gas.
Ukraine began importing gas from Germany through Poland in November 2012 under an agreement with Germany's RWE Supply & Trading GmbH. It began importing gas from Hungary in April 2013 and is negotiating deliveries from Romania and Slovakia.
According to the forecast natural gas balance for 2013 approved by the government, Ukraine expects to import 27.3 bcm of gas this year, including 18 bcm from Russian Gazprom, 8 bcm from Dmytro Firtash's Cyprus-registered OstChem and 1.3 bcm from RWE Supply & Trading GmbH.
