Ukraine counts on agreements with Russia on temporary gas price, otherwise price to be set by Stockholm

Ukraine still needs additional 5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to get through the winter and expects to agree on the temporary price for this amount at the joint talks involving Russia and the EU.

But if the talks fail the price of gas will be established by the Stockholm arbitration court, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk said opening a government meeting in Kyiv on Wednesday. "There are two ways: to pursue joint energy policy together with the EU in order to sign a temporary agreement for the gas supply until the Stockholm arbitration [tribunal] resolves the dispute [between Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russia’s Gazprom concerning the 2009 contract]. If no agreement is reached the second option is to appeal to the court so that the court set the price and conditions for the gas supply," Yatseniuk said. According to him, Ukraine and the EU have taken a common stand at the talks. "We expect further negotiations," he said. The prime minister also said that Ukraine currently has 16.7 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground gas storage facilities and on October 1 Ukraine started importing natural gas under a contract with the Norwegian company Statoil.