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Ukraine wants to negotiate gas prices until 2016 heating season end — Ukrainian minister

Ukraine assumes the take-or-pay contract term for Russian gas supplies will not work in the second quarter of this year

KIEV, April 1. /TASS/. Ukraine wants to negotiate gas prices with Russia until the end of the 2016 heating season, the Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Vladimir Demchishin said at a press conference Wednesday.

"We need to sign a contract not for the second quarter, or third, but for the time period until the end of the next heating season," he said.

Demchishin noted that the situation with gas supplies for the Q2 of 2015 is "more or less clear", but Kiev "needs a contract."

According to the minsiter, Ukraine assumes the take-or-pay contract term for Russian gas supplies will not work in the second quarter of this year. He added that Ukraine expects to extend the winter package as it was in Q1 when the take-or-pay term was not stipulated for gas supplies.

According to him, Kiev is preparing for a tripartite gas talks in Berlin on April 13-14, where it plans to reach an agreement on gas with Russia.

Demchishin said that "currently we don’t buy gas from Russia", but the country plans to resume imports after reaching agreement on the price. "If we confirm the price of $250 per 1,000 cubic meters, we will continue supplies," he said. Demchishin said that a respective memorandum of gas supplies will be signed between the two companies - Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gazprom.