In 2015, Gazprom paid around $2 billion for transiting around 67 billion cubic meters of natural gas / Photo from eer.ru
Naftogaz of Ukraine Director for Business Development Yuriy Vitrenko says that Russia's OAO Gazprom should have to pay Ukraine $6.1 billion for natural gas transit at new rates against $2 billion paid last year if gas volumes pumped through Ukraine's gas transport system do not grow.
The new rates consist of two components – one is applied for the booked volumes, and the other (the price of power gas) is applied for the volumes that have been pumped through the pipeline.
"It's relatively easy to compare how much Gazprom should pay for transit via Ukraine's territory at old and new rates. In 2015, Gazprom paid around $2 billion for transiting around 67 billion cubic meters of natural gas through Ukraine. In 2016, with the same transit volumes, Gazprom would have to pay $6.1 billion. This is three times, or $4 billion more," Vitrenko wrote on Facebook.
In his words, the increased price of transit shipments is calculated on the basis of a 110-billion cubic meter capacity booked for Gazprom under the current contract, which was signed in 2009.
"Thus Gazprom has an economic incentive to make the most of the reserved capacity. For example, if the transit volume is raised by 64% to 110 billion cubic meters, Gazprom will have to pay only 5% ($300 million) more," Vitrenko said.
"Thus, if Gazprom wants to lower the price of transit per 1,000 cubic meters, it should pump more gas via Ukraine. It's up to them, as the saying goes," Vitrenko added.