Ukraine rejects Moscow's price hike

[pjohns]

From AGI:

Ukraine has declared they will not pay the price of almost 500 dollars per cubic metre for Russian gas, announced recently by the Russian gas consortium Gazprom.

Kiev has also accused Moscow of conducting 'economic aggression'. "Political pressure will prove useless, we are not accepting the price of 500 dollars", Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenuk said during a cabinet meeting. He added: "Russia has not succeeded in conquering Ukraine with military aggression, so now they are opting for an economic aggression."

And the impending showdown looms ever closer...

Anyway, here is the link:  Latest Online News | Agenzia Giornalistica Italia | AGI

[SPQR]

From AGI:

And the impending showdown looms ever closer...

Anyway, here is the link:  Latest Online News | Agenzia Giornalistica Italia | AGI

The Ukraine has no choice. Either pay for Gazprom gas prices or freeze unless they get it from outside sources.Ukraine hadn’t been paying Gazprom the $268 rate and racking up billions of dollars in unpaid bills.

[SPQR]

The Ukraine has no choice. Either pay for Gazprom gas prices or freeze unless they get it from outside sources.Ukraine hadn’t been paying Gazprom the $268 rate racking billions of dollars in unpaid bills.

The EU pays the rate $500 per 1,000 cubic meters

[SPQR]

[pjohns]

The Ukraine has no choice. Either pay for Gazprom gas prices or freeze unless they get it from outside sources.Ukraine hadn’t been paying Gazprom the $268 rate and racking up billions of dollars in unpaid bills.

Or, alternatively, it could simply tell Russia to keep its gas; and then, acquire it from a different source.

Which, I believe, is precisely what is planned by the government in Kiev.

[SPQR]

Or, alternatively, it could simply tell Russia to keep its gas; and then, acquire it from a different source.

Which, I believe, is precisely what is planned by the government in Kiev.

Where is the nearest port though? The nearest port is in Turkey.LNG is usually carried by boat. They still need to unload it and I do not think that Kiev has the infrastucture and that is in the proposal stage.Proposed terminal near Odessa. In 2012 the Ukrainian government and Unión Fenosa (where believed to have) signed an agreement on its building but Unión Fenosa denies this and it claimed on November 2012 "nor are we leading any consortium to develop such a terminal ... nor are we studying anything along these lines". The terminal was due to start working at a capacity of 5 billion cubic meters a year by 2016. In order to meet the 2016 deadline, they would have to start construction immediately on the offloading terminals. My suggestion is to swallow the price of the LNG until Kiev builds the necessary ports with outside help.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_LNG_terminals
http://en.ria.ru/business/20121126/177741743.html

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These are all the LNG Ports in Europe. This includes existing ones and ones on the drawing board.

[pjohns]

Where is the nearest port though?

Perhaps this is part and parcel of Ukraine's losing its port in Crimea.  (Yes, it was already under long-term lease to the Russians; but Ukraine could have used it, too, prior to the outbreak of this adversarial relationship.) 

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 If the Ukraine wants to become part of the EU so badly, they must pay the EU rate for natural gasoline. They have been getting discounted gasoline for so long the racked up billions of dollars in debt. If they want a port so badly, they can ask for a loan from the EU to build one.