You're reading: Naftogaz head: Slovakia begins gas supplies to Ukraine

Velke Kapusany - Natural gas supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine have begun, Naftogaz Ukrainy head Andrei Kobolev said on his Facebook page.

He was taking part in the opening ceremony for the Vojany-Uzhgorod pipeline.

“Here we go. We need much more than this, but this is an important step,” he said on his Facebook page.

According to the Ukrainian government press service, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico took part in the launch of the gas pipeline, as well as the director of the European Commission’s department for the domestic energy market, Klaus-Dieter Borchardt.

“Thanks to the opening of reverse supplies from Slovakia and to the opportunity for Ukraine to acquire gas in Europe, we replaced 40 percent of the gas that was earlier bought from Gazprom with gas that we are buying and transporting from Europe,” the statement cited Yatsenyuk as saying.

Earlier Kobolev announced the successful completion of tests for pumping gas from Slovakia to Ukraine along the Vojany-Uzhgorod pipeline.

The Ukrainian operator of Ukrtransgaz transport system and the Slovakian operator of Eustream system signed a memorandum on mutual understanding concerning the provision of reverse gas supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine.

The expected volume of gas is up to 27 million cubic meters a day.