No progress yet in gas purchase talks with Gazprom: Kobolyev

CEO of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolyev has said there has been no progress yet in negotiations between the National Oil and Gas Holding Naftogaz of Ukraine and Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom on the purchase of Russian gas this year.

"I don't comment on the negotiations with Gazprom. So far, there has been no progress... But there will be," he said during a roundtable, an UNIAN correspondent reports.

As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine in late November 2015 decided to stop buying natural gas from Russia's Gazprom. In 2017, the country increased gas imports by 26.8%, to 14.1 billion cubic meters.

Read alsoStockholm Arbitration to hand down award on UA-RU gas transit contract dispute in late Feb – Naftogaz CEOOn December 22, Naftogaz received the final warrant of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce related to the gas purchase contract. Thus, the court satisfied a number of demands of the Ukrainian side, that is reduced the gas purchase price in the second quarter of 2014 by 27.4%, to $352 per 1,000 cubic meters, rejected Russia's Gazprom take-or-pay claims amounting to $56 billion, and reduced the mandatory annual gas purchases in 2018-2019 from 52 billion to 5 billion cubic meters.

In this regard, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that Ukraine is ready to start buying natural gas from Russia again if its price is low, fair, and not corrupt.

Naftogaz plans to start purchasing gas from Gazprom as early as March this year.