Gazprom, affiliates stretch strategic stronghold over Ukraine’s …- Topic: Oil and Gas News

Russia’s Gazprom, and an affiliate natural gas trader, are steadily increasing their stronghold over Ukraine’s vast energy sector, which already finds itself overwhelmingly dependent on its northern neighbor for supplies of hydrocarbons. The upswing in activity in Ukraine by Gazprom and a Swiss-registered gas trader that the Russian gas giant co-owns with Ukrainian businessmen, comes at a sensitive time and could be raised as an issue in the upcoming Sept. This week, Ukrainian officials announced Gazprom would resume direct natural gas storage contracts and would soon, through a Ukrainian company, hold interests in developing a Black Sea hydrocarbon deposit. The price of natural gas for next year will be determined by Gazprom, which essentially means the Kremlin, only after the elections and a governing coalition is formed,” said Volodymyr Saprykin, Director of the Energy Program at the Razumkov Center think tank. Yanukovych government officials said this week that Ukraine, whose energy inefficiency leads to the consumption of a whopping 80 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas annually, will likely pay about 10 percent more for gas next year. The deal yielded Gazprom, which controls the supply of gas to Ukraine from its own supplies and Central Asia, its first interest on Ukraine’s domestic gas market. read more

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