Naftogaz Ups Producer Price, Hires Oslo Law Firm
Ukraine's state gas group Naftogaz said August 13 it intends to raise its purchase price for the third time in this year for natural gas bought from Ukrainian producers.
The price now is hryvnia 8209/ '000 m3 excluding value added tax, or $8.31/mn Btu, from August 8. It previously said in late June it would pay hryvnia 8088 this month (hryvnia rates are per '000 m3 )
Naftogaz offered 6900 hryvnia per '000 m3 ($7.24/mn Btu) to domestic gas producers in June but got no takers. In July, Naftogaz raised its offer to 7629 hryvnia ($8/mn Btu) excluding VAT. It previously approved a purchase price rise in March 2017 to hryvnia 4,942.
Naftogaz purchase price (hryvnia) in 2018
|
Month |
Price per '000 m3 |
|
August |
8209 |
|
July |
7629 |
|
June |
6900 |
Source: Naftogaz
It is not clear that is it struggling to find willing offers to sell. Naftogaz spokesperson Aliona Osmolovska told NGW: “This offer reflects our assessment of the current market level”.
Gas in Ukraine’s storage as at Aug.11 2018 was just under 141.2 TWh-gas (13.1bn m3), so 43.6%-full – so little changed from its year-ago inventory of 143 TWh-gas, according to EU industry data. According to official Ukrainian statistics, Ukraine’s imports declined by 31.5% to 5.587bn m3 in the first seven months of 2018; the country produced 11.972bn m3 in Jan-July, about 0.6% higher year a year.
Naftogaz hires legal support
As its dispute with Russia’s gas giant Gazprom continues, Naftogaz has decided to take further legal support from a Norwegian foreign law firm, signing an €18mn agreement August 9 with Wikborg Rein. Local media said August 13 the contract was listed on the state’s ‘ProZorro’ procurement system. A press report said: “€8mn will be paid for Wikborg Rein Advokatfirma’s services within the framework of arbitration proceedings, and €10mn for lawyers’ services for compulsory enforcement of arbitration decisions.”
Naftogaz reported record 2017 financial results after its "historical victory over Gazprom in the finale of the Stockholm arbitration proceedings," CEO Andriy Kobolev said in the annual report published July 17. But the firm has suffered a number of setbacks since in recovering the award. Wikborg Rein has provided support on arbitration proceedings to Naftogaz against Gazprom since 2014.