Head of Ukraine's Naftogaz arrives in Moscow for gas talks

KIEV, November 11 (RIA Novosti) - The head of Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz arrived in Moscow on Tuesday for talks with Russian energy giant Gazprom on a long-term gas supplies contract until 2019, the Naftogaz press office said.

Oleh Dubina will hold talks with Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller on a ten-year contract for gas supplies to Ukraine, the Naftogaz press office said.

The price of natural gas for Ukraine in 2009 and subsequent years has not yet been agreed. Kiev hopes that the price will be around $250 per 1,000 cubic meters next year. This year, Ukraine has been paying $179.5 per 1,000 cu m.

Dubina said on Monday that he hoped a pricing formula based on the price of natural gas in Europe, earlier mentioned by Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, would not be used in the next three-year period of transition to market prices.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart Tymoshenko agreed at the start of October on a memorandum on direct natural gas supplies from Gazprom and Naftogaz without intermediaries. The parties were also expected to move to market prices for gas over the next three years.