RusEnergy

ASTANA, Jan 21, 2009 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan has raised the fee for the transit of Uzbek and Turkmen gas to Russia by 21 percent from the beginning of 2009, Energy Minister Sauat Mynbayev said on Wednesday. Kazakh state oil and gas company KazMunaiGas [KMG.UL] and Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.MM) signed a deal on December 31 last year raising the fee to $1.7 per 1,000 cubic metres per 100 kilometres from $1.4, Mynbayev told a government meeting. Russia, which buys natural gas from the Central Asian states for further exports to Europe, has promised to raise the price it pays for the gas to European levels. Gazprom has also said it had agreed new pricing levels with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, but has not revealed the price. (Reporting by Raushan Nurshayeva; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov)