Chief of Verkhovna Rada Committee for issues of national security and defense Anatoliy Hrytsenko is confident that Ukraine may become quite independent of gas supplies from other countries.
According to an UNIAN correspondent, he claimed this to a press conference in Lviv.
“There is no gas topic in Ukraine. We may be quite independent in this sphere”, A.Hrytsenko stressed.
The lawmaker noted that Ukraine, contrary to tens of European countries, has its own gas fields and may extract up to 20 mln cubic meters of own natural gas annually.
Besides, A.Hrytsenko noted, Ukraine has “a strategic pipe”, which gave additional 28 bln cu m of natural gas as early as in 2005. A question appears why this year Ukraine will receive only 9 bln cu m of natural gas for its transit services, the lawmaker emphasized.
The Verkhovna Rada Committee head is convinced that the Ukrainian leadership should use the pipe potential over interaction with RF and fuel consumers in Europe.
A.Hrytsenko noted that an additional factor of the Ukraine’s energy security is its underground gas depots. None of European countries has any such depots, the lawmaker noted.
According to him, Ukraine should provide the social and communal spheres with its own natural gas. And the state should not be busy with the problem of where and at what price the natural gas will be bought by Ukrainian billionaires, because businessmen are able to hold talks themselves.
