UKRAINE-GAS-EUROPE-SHIPMENTS

(Updated)

Kyiv, February 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine plans to start importing natural gas from Europe through Hungary and Slovakia in the first quarter of 2013, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Eduard Stavytsky said.

“There are some technical issues with Slovakia, which we are dealing with, and virtually all issues with Hungary have already been settled,” Stavytsky told journalists in Kyiv on Thursday.

The negotiations on arranging gas supplies to Ukraine from Europe are nearing completion now, he said.

Stavytsky suggested also that Ukraine had received a proposal on gas supplies from Europe not only from Germany’s RWE.

“We already have a proposal from Europe on [gas] supplies to Ukrainian territory,” Stavytsky told journalists, after which, when asked whether this concerns only supplies by the German company RWE, he replied, “Not only.”

He pledged to provide more details after negotiations are held on the matter.