KIEV, November 14. /TASS/. Ukraine plans to buy up to 1.5 billion cubic metres of gas at first before the end of this year, Minister of Energy and Coalmining Yuri Prodan said in an interview with Ukrainian magazine Novoye Vremya ("new time").
“Our plans are preliminary to buy up to 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas before the end of the year,” the minister said.
Prodan also noted that depending on the weather Ukraine planned to buy up to one billion cubic metres of gas in Russia in the first quarter of 2015.
Yuri Prodan said earlier that Ukraine began to buy Russian gas according to “country’s needs.” The minister noted that under protocols and the agreement signed by Ukrainian national oil and gas company Naftogaz and Russian energy giant Gazprom the country can buy any gas amounts starting from any date and making advance payment for any gas volumes.
Meanwhile, Naftogaz chief Andrey Kobolev noted that Ukraine would be able to try “to reduce consumption and pass coming winter without Russian gas taking some saving measures and controlling key ineffective elements of consumption.