KIEV, Dec. 20 – Ukraine has been insisting on including a multinational oil company, such as ExxonMobile or Royal Dutch/Shell, as a partner in a natural gas transportation joint venture with Russia, a newspaper reported Tuesday.

But Kiev also specifically asked against tapping Ruhrgas, a German gas company, which it views as an ally of Gazprom with the alliance potentially jeopardizing its national interests, Kommersant reported citing a source in the government.

“We want to see, say, Shell or ExxonMobil, not Gazprom’s satellites like Ruhrgas,” the source in the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry said.

Ukraine runs a natural gas transportation system that moves up to 80% of Russia’s Europe-bound gas supplies, earning about $2.8 billion annually in fees paid by Gazprom.

Many politicians view the system as Ukraine’s strategic asset, which, if controlled by Gazprom, would make the country’s energy security vulnerable. Ruhrgas owns a minority stake in Gazprom and has a representative in its board of directors.

Ukraine has been holding difficult talks with Russia in order to lower natural gas prices, a measure that is crucial for boosting the country’s economy in 2012.

The talks made significant progress over the past two months, but had suddenly stumbled last week, when Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller had ruled out any agreement before the end of December.

Ukraine has been seeking to lower gas prices to $230 per 1,000 cubic meters, down from $401/1,000 cu m currently.

The lower price was expected to help Ukraine save $6 billion annually beginning in 2012, while a failure to sign the deal with Russia would mean painful social spending cuts next year.

In order to win lower gas prices, Ukraine has suggested creating two joint ventures, one of which would operate the country’s natural gas transportation system, while another would run gas distribution pipelines.

Ukraine has been pushing for creating a trilateral joint venture that would include a Ukrainian, a Russian and a European business entity, while Russia has so far insisted on forming a bilateral joint venture, excluding any other partners.

“Moscow insists on the joint venture to be exclusively Russian-Ukrainian, and wants to stipulate this status in the legislature,” the source said. “We want a third of the joint venture to be owed by a European entity.”

Ukraine has apparently suggested that Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrayiny first create a bilateral 50-50 joint venture, but at a later time both, Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukrayiny, would sell each 16.5% to the multinational entity, de-facto transforming the joint venture into a trilateral company.

Gazprom first resisted, but then agreed that a European entity can own 20%, not 33% as Ukraine had suggested, the source said, adding that Gazprom has been seeking to cement its leading role in the joint venture.

“The impression is that Gazprom, after fully realizing how difficult it is for Ukraine and how unfavorable the current gas price is has been trying to squeeze whatever it can from the talks,” the source said.

President Viktor Yanukovych, at a summit with European Union leader in Kiev on Monday, said that Ukraine is still waiting for an answer from the EU and from Russia on whether the trilateral joint venture is accepted.

“We suggest that Russia and the EU create a joint gas transportation venture and assume responsibility for moving guaranteed volumes of gas and maintaining this unique gas transportation system in good order,” Yanukovych said at the summit. “We are waiting for the answer from both, Russia and the EU, do they accept this proposal or not.” (tl/ez)