Ukrainian state gas firm Naftogaz is pumping enough natural gas into storage facilities to ensure reliable supplies and transit of Russian gas to European consumers during the coming winter, Russian state gas firm OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) said Thursday.
"Gas is being pumped into Ukrainian underground storage facilities according to plan," Gazprom said in a statement following a meeting between the heads of the two companies, Gazprom's Alexei Miller and Naftogaz's Oleg Dubina.
Last winter, Russia turned off gas supplies to Ukraine in a dispute over prices, leaving large parts of Eastern Europe without supplies for almost three weeks.
Europe gets a quarter of its gas supplied from Russia, mostly via pipelines through Ukraine. Several southeastern European countries almost totally depend on that gas.
Officials in both Brussels and Moscow have expressed concern that indebted Naftogaz won't be able to buy the necessary volume required to secure the flow of natural gas to Europe in the coming winter.
Traditionally, Ukraine stores gas in storage tanks in the western part of the country during the summer for export to Europe during the winter. The country's transit pipeline system doesn't have the necessary capacity to meet European demand during the winter.