„If we manage to get $130 per thousand cubic meters, it will be real luck for us,” Yanukovych said yesterday at a cabinet meeting, according to his Web site. Ukraine depends on imports for about 80% of its energy, mostly from Russia. The country agreed Jan. 4 to pay an average $95 per 1,000 cubic meters for Russian gas in 2006, compared with the $230 demanded by Russia and the $50 Ukraine had paid previously. The agreement resolved a dispute that had culminated in Russia’s cutting off gas deliveries to Ukraine in early January and curbed shipments to customers elsewhere in Europe. Ukraine and Russia will set up gas prices through 2009 by the end of the year, Ukraine’s Fuel and Energy Ministry Yuriy Boyko said September 27. Ukraine wants to diversify its supply, an effort that includes exploring for oil and gas in such countries as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Egypt, and Libya, and Russia, said Yanukovych August 14. (Bloomberg)