Turkmenistan Won't Change Gas Delivery to Ukraine

Deliveries of gas from Turkmenistan to Ukraine will remain unchanged in 2007, the Ukrainian prime minister said Sunday.

Viktor Yanukovych, who led the Ukrainian delegation at the funeral of the late Turkmen leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, said the future of bilateral relations had been discussed with Turkmenistan's oil and gas minister, Kurbanmirat Atayev.

"We stressed that the relations and traditions developed under the rule of Saparmurat Niyazov will remain unchanged," Yanukovych said.

Ukraine currently imports a mixture of Russian and cheaper Turkmen natural gas at $95 per 1,000 cubic meters. Before Niyazov's death, Ukraine agreed on a gas price of $130 per 1,000 cubic meters, to be supplied from Turkmenistan through Russia in 2007. "Ukraine will receive 38 billion cubic meters of gas