KIEV, Dec. 1 – A cabinet decision to peg the price of natural gas supplied to Ukrainian industrial consumers to the hryvnia exchange rate to the dollar will seriously worsen the condition of chemical companies that use gas as a raw material, according to Oleksiy Holubov, the president of the Union of Chemical Companies of Ukraine.

"If the price of gas is pegged to the dollar, we'll finally come to a halt," he said.

Holubov said that until recently, chemical companies bought gas at $300, while the price of gas imported to Ukraine was $179.50 per thousand cubic meters, although the cost of supplying gas to chemical companies are minimal.