KIEV, July 6 (RIA Novosti) - A total of 7.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas that belongs to Russian giant Gazprom has been discovered in full in Ukrainian underground storehouses, a representative of the Ukrainian customs service told a Wednesday news conference.
Taras Shepitko denied rumors that it was technically impossible to separate the Russian gas from the 10 billion cubic meters of Ukrainian gas in the facilities. "These rumors do not correspond to reality," said Shepitko.
On June 29, Alexei Ivchenko, the chairman of Ukraine's Naftogaz oil and gas company, said the company was ready to begin returning Russian natural gas to Gazprom from July 1.
Gazprom had previously made a unilateral decision to include the 7.8 billion cubic meters of its natural gas in the Ukrainian storage facilities in a form of in-kind payment for the transit of Russian natural gas via Ukrainian territory.
