MOSCOW (Dow Jones)--Russia and Ukraine are both seeking to change the terms of existing natural gas delivery agreements ahead of a visit by Ukraine's Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to Moscow on Jan. 23, the Kommersant daily reported Thursday.
Ukraine is demanding that future gas deliveries from Russian gas monopoly OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) are conducted without Swiss-based Rosukrenergo, which currently acts as an intermediary.
It also wants to raise the price Russia pays for gas transit to Europe to $9.72 per 1,000 cubic meters from $1.70 now, the paper cited unnamed sources as saying.
In turn, Rosukrenergo's executive director and Gazprom board member Konstantin Chuichenko Wednesday said a recent drop in supplies of Central Asian gas, which Gazprom sells on to Ukraine, had forced Rosukrenergo to send more expensive Russian gas to the former Soviet republic.
Russian gas costs $314.7 per 1,000 cubic meters, around $100 more than Central Asian gas from countries like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Tymoshenko had called for the elimination of Rosukrenergo as a middleman in gas contracts with Russia during her recent campaign to become PM.