Ending renewed tensions between Moscow and Kiev, Russia's gas export monopoly Gazprom has reached a agreement with Ukraine's state energy firm, Naftogas. As a result all middlemen will be removed from their gas trade, which a key Ukrainian demand.
Gazprom spokesman Serguei Koupriyanov said: "With regard to gas deliveries from March until the end of the year, the direct purchaser for cross border supplies from Russia to Ukraine will be Naftogas. Negotiations on the price of gas for the year 2009 and following years will take into account the state of market prices."
Ukraine, which gets nearly three quarters of its gas through Russian has been in dispute with Gazprom for several weeks over the role of middlemen who it said raise prices. They were also arguing about money owed for previous gas supplies.
As a result, Gazprom briefly halved supplies to Ukraine earlier this month. That raising worries about disruptions to gas deliveries passing through the country bound for Europe as happened during an earlier dispute in January 2006. Europe gets around a quarter of its gas from Russia.
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