KIEV, November 10. /TASS/. Ukraine will buy natural gas from Russia upon necessity and this will depend on measures taken by the government to save energy in the country, a senior official of Ukraine’s national oil and gas company said on Monday.

“Our gas purchases from Russia will depend on how we will be saving [energy],” an acting deputy chairman of the board of Naftogaz, Yuriy Kolupaylo, told reporters at a press conference.

The Naftogaz official confirmed that Ukraine currently receives around 30 million cubic meters of gas in stable reverse supplies from EU countries, namely via Slovakia.

He confirmed that Kiev may buy up to 4 billion cubic meters of gas from Russian energy giant Gazprom, but failed to specify when the Ukrainian company could start purchasing Russian gas.

Last year, Ukraine consumed around 50 billion cubic meters of gas, including 26 billion cubic meters from Russia and 2.1 billion cubic meters from Europe. The remaining gas (21 billion cubic meters) was extracted in Ukraine.

This year, amid a political standoff and a more than $5 billion debt before Gazprom, Kiev agreed on up to 16 billion cubic meters in reverse flows from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.

By late October, the Ukrainian authorities acknowledged that they lack 5 billion cubic meters of gas for heating this winter.

During the trilateral consultations between Russia, Ukraine and the European Union in late October in Brussels, the sides agreed on resumption of Russian gas deliveries.

Under the agreement, Kiev planned to buy 4 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia by late 2014. However, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on the sidelines of talks the Ukrainian side did not rule out that it could buy up to 7 billion cubic meters of gas.

Ukraine’s zn.ua newspaper reported that Kiev is considering plans to buy 1 billion cubic meters of gas from Gazprom by late 2014 and around 3 billion cubic meters of gas in January-March 2015.