KIEV, July 11 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine has freighted an additional 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the Russian companies Transneft and RosUkrEnergo, Alexei Ivchenko, the head of Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy, told journalists Monday.
"We concluded two additional contracts, one for 6 billion cubic meters with Transneft and the other for 5 billion, with RosUkrEnergo. This is more than enough to cover Ukraine's consumer need for natural gas," Ivchenko said. Naftogaz presented a company report for the first six months of 2005 at a government session Monday.
The Novosti-Ukraine news agency reported that only gas volumes' freighting was under discussion, not purchase contracts.
"We are still discussing the price, but the contracts have been concluded," Ivchenko said.
At the same time, Economy Minister Sergei Terekhin told journalists that the government had asked the company to pass the original contracts signed with Transneft and RosUkrEnergo to the government on Wednesday.
"The price issue remains open. We need gas, but not at any cost," Terekhin said.
Since the beginning of 2005, RosUkrEnergo has been delivering Turkmen gas from the Turkmen-Uzbek to the Russian-Ukrainian border through the territory of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia.
