Novatek hopes to save contract with Inter RAO UES

For the first time, Novatek has indirectly confirmed that Rosneft may refuse a part of gas supplies under contract with Inter RAO UES in 2016. Formally, since 2016 the oil company should provide a major Kostroma regional power station of Inter RAO UES, but Novatek expects to save the contract. According to analysts, the transfer of a part of the supplies to Novatek would be a logical adaptation to deteriorating attractiveness of the domestic gas market for Rosneft.

Novatek considers the possibility to continue the gas supplies to the Kostroma regional power station, owned by Inter RAO UES after the end of the current contract too, head of the gas company Leonid Michelson said on Friday. "We want to remain a supplier of gas to the Kostroma regional power station. We consider our participation in the gas supply to the region, and the lion's share of the consumption is the hydroelectric power station," - he explained. By the end of the year, Inter RAO UES really buys most of its gas from Novatek, but even in 2012, the company agreed that since 2016 Rosneft will be the supplier. Novatek decline to additionally comment.