You're reading: Azarov: Ukraine able to achieve reduction in Russian gas purchases

OSLO - Steps Ukraine has taken to diversify gas delivery and develop its own production have allowed the country to significantly reduce purchases of Russian gas, Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

“All the steps we’ve taken have allowed us to order just 18 billion
cubic meters of gas from Russia,” the prime minister said during a
meeting with representatives of Norway’s energy sector in Oslo on
Thursday.

Azarov said that because of disadvantageous contracts Russian gas
sold to Ukraine has become more expensive and Ukraine overpays Russia
around $7 billion for gas annually.

“We were compelled to conduct negotiations with our partners on the
purchase of gas in Germany, and you can imagine that we buy Russian gas
for less in Germany than in Russia,” Azarov said.

Ukraine intends to continue working to diversify the sources from
which it buys energy resources and to increase the production of its own
gas.

“We considering that per 1 billion cubic meters of per year we will be adding gas produced ourselves,” he said.