The Ukrainian government hopes to prepare its application to buy Russian gas within the assigned timeframe, Deputy Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Makukha told journalists before a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“The issue is still being worked on. Negotiations are underway. This issue was discussed during the July 12 meeting [a meeting of the Ukrainian-Russian Intergovernmental Commission in Yalta]. So, this issue is in process. I think that we will agree. We have enough time,” he said.
Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Boiko earlier said that Kyiv and Moscow approved an application to purchase natural gas for 2013. When asked to clarify whether this concerned Ukraine’s purchase of 27 billion cubic meters of gas, the minister said “I think we will buy even less.”
Gazprom, in turn, denies the existence of an agreement to reduce the contracted volume of gas supplies to Ukraine.
“No. The contract still foresees an annual contract volume of 52 billion cubic meters. There aren’t any agreements on reducing these volumes. We are working strictly by this contract,” Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said on June 27, while commenting to journalists on the position of the Ukrainian side.
