The gas price stipulated by the contract involving Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz is lower than those on the European market, so there is no background for discounts, Russia’s Energy Minister Alexander Novak said in an interview aired by the Rossiya-24 TV news channel on Monday.
"As for the discount there is no background for it today as the price stipulated by the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz is in line or even lower than the prices on the European market now," he said.
Earlier Novak said that Kiev would not have sufficient gas in its underground gas storage facilities for passing the winter season properly, and it needs another 2 bln cubic meters of gas. He added that Moscow is ready to supply the needed volumes of gas if Kiev is able to pay.
"It would be advisable for our partners to inject additional 1.5-2 bln cubic meters of gas to be more confident that in case of cold temperatures gas from the underground gas storage facilities will be used by the Ukrainian consumers," he said.
Novak said that the current contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz allows to fully support the needs of Ukrainian consumers in gas. "The question is in the availability of financial resources - money transfer in accordance with the pre-payment regime," the minister said.
(ITAR-TASS)
