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Russia ready to offer Ukraine discount on gas contract in spring — minister

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Russia is ready to offer Ukraine a discount under the natural gas supply contract in spring 2015, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Tuesday.

According to him, the Ukrainian side has not requested the discount yet. “The contract on the previous terms will be in effect from April 1,” the minister said. He added that if Ukraine “needs a discount,” Russia was “ready to offer it.”

On December 12, CEO of Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz Andriy Kobolev said the company intended to purchase natural gas in the first quarter of 2015 at the price below $340 per 1,000 cubic metres.

The discount offered by Russia’s natural gas monopoly Gazprom after trilateral negotiations in Brussels on October 30 sets the gas price for Ukraine in the fourth quarter of 2014 at $378 for 1,000 cubic metres, and in the first quarter of 2015 — at $365 for 1,000 cubic metres.