KIEV, September 23. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine is ready to negotiate an interim price for Russian gas, which would be a market one, during trilateral gas talks in Berlin on Friday, the country’s Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yury Prodan said Tuesday at a news conference.

Ukraine will support compromise suggestions to be made by the EU, Prodan said.

“We are making attempts to find a solution and are holding consultations with the EU to work out a compromise,” he said.

EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger confirmed that the main goal is to find an interim solution for the winter period and until April.

Earlier on Tuesday, Oettinger said he opposes imposition of sanctions against Russian gas sector, as stable daily gas supplies should not be a political instrument.

Gas trilateral talks were suspended in June after Russia and Ukraine failed to agree on repayment of a US $5.3 billion debt and gas prices. On June 16, Russia’s Gazprom switched Ukraine off gas supplies.

Kiev boosts gas storage

Ukraine pumped 188 million cubic meters of gas into underground storage facilities from September 14 through September 21, raising the volume of stored gas to 16.444 billion cubic meters.

Ukraine’s underground storage facilities are 51.47% loaded as of September 21.

Ukraine pumps gas, which it receives in a reverse mode from Europe and produces locally. The country has 12 underground gas storages with a total capacity of around 31 billion cubic meters.

Russia-Ukraine gas dispute

A trilateral gas meeting between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union is scheduled to be held in Berlin on September 26.

The previous discussions, launched on May 2, that involved EU Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak and his Ukrainian counterpart Yuriy Prodan, ended on June 16 with no result.

Ukraine’s Naftogaz and Russian energy giant Gazprom later filed mutual claims to the Stockholm Arbitration Tribunal.

Ukraine currently does not receive Russian gas over an unsettled dispute over gas prices.

The Naftogaz oil and gas company stopped paying for the consumed Russian natural gas since March 25. As of August 1, the overall debt of Naftogaz to Gazprom for supplied gas totaled about $5.296 billion.