ITERA Goes Back to Ukraine

MOSCOW, Russia -- ITERA Group intends to go back to Ukraine this year and sell up to 4 billion cub. m. of gas there. To this effect, Naftogaz Ukraine managers are in active talks with ITERA-Ukraine, delving into all possible patterns of the company’s activities on that market. In his plans to demonopolize the gas sales of Ukraine, Naftogaz board chairman Alexey Ivchenko apparently counts on ITERA, as exactly with that company he cooperated as a gas buyer when he headed Intergaz.


ITERA Group President Igor Makarov
ITERA used to ship Turkmen gas from Turkmen/Uzbek border to the Russia’s/Ukrainian frontier, where the company sold it to Ukrainian intermediaries. In 2003, ITERA was forced out of the market of Ukraine by Gazprom. According to Ukrainian National Electricity Governance Commission, ITERA Energy (Kiev) sold 133.2 million cub. m. of Ukrainian gas on domestic market in 2004. TEK ITERA-Ukraine sold 25.2 million cub. m. of Ukrainian gas in the first two months of this year.

This year, ITERA Group is able to sell up to 4 billion cub. m. of gas in Ukraine, Valery Enkin, head of the power department at ITERA-Ukraine, announced in Kiev Wednesday, adding “if it gets an opportunity to import gas, which it plans to acquire under the foreign economic contracts.” Evidently, Enkin meant the Turkmen gas. Pursuant to agreement made between ITERA and Turkmenistan, the company may deliver up to 10 billion cub. m. of the natural gas till the year 2006. But the agreement was actually blocked by Gazprom in 2003-2004, when Russia’s gas monopoly didn’t seal the contract for Turkmen gas transit via Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia. Gazprom is skeptical about the yesterday’s statement of Enkin. “To ship gas, they need a contract with a buyer. ITERA has neither called on Gazprom with such requests, nor submitted its contract with Ukraine,” Igor Volobuev, Gazporm’s briefer, explained yesterday.

Sergey Lukyanenko, briefer at Naftogaz Ukraine, declined to confirm the company’s negotiations with ITERA. However, a source with the company told Kommersant on condition of anonymity “negotiations with ITERA are well underway. Alexey Ivchenko, as the head of Intergaz trader, which used to acquire gas from ITERA, intends to demonopolize the natural gas market and bring back the company on it, if not as a core deliverer, then at least as a gas trader.”

In view of the above it is not surprising that ITERA’s head Igor Makarov was among the Russian business giants invited by Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko to have a talk with.