Winter, summer prices of Russian gas for Ukraine may be discussed during talks

BRUSSELS, September 01./ITAR-TASS/. A three-party ministerial meeting on the price of Russian gas and Ukraine's debt to Russia may discuss a compromise offer of winter and summer prices, a European diplomatic source told ITAR-TASS on Monday.

This may envisage winter gas prices of about $385 for 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas and summer prices of $325, the source said. He also said Ukraine was insisting that an exact price be fixed without the mentioning of discounts.

The existing compromise offer envisages the start of a stage-by-stage settlement of Ukrainian Naftogaz debt for Russian gas under an exact schedule.

A new ministerial meeting, involving Russia, Ukraine and the European Union, is due in Brussels on September 6, the source said.

The parties will discuss the schedule for Ukraine's repayment of debts for already supplied Russian gas and a compromise gas price option for a period of 12 months.

'An agreement in principle on the resumption of talks has been reached,' the source said.

Taking part in the previous talks were the Russian and Ukrainian energy ministers, Alexander Novak and Yuriy Prodan and EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger.

The consultations started on May 2 and ended on June 16 failing to produce result, after which Russia's Gazprom and Ukraine's Naftogaz gas companies filed lawsuits against each other.

Russian energy giant Gazprom on June 16 switched Ukraine's oil and gas company Naftogaz to prepayment for gas supplies because Kiev failed to pay part of its gas debt by the deadline of 10:00 Moscow Time on June 16.

Gas supplies to Ukraine were halted, but transit volumes were reportedly passing via Ukraine to Europe in line with the schedule.

Gazprom said June 16 that Naftogaz's past due debt for supplied Russian gas totaled $4.458 billion: $1.451 billion for November-December 2013 and $3.007 billion for April-May 2014.