Ukraine increased daily natural gas imports from Slovakia by 18 percent on Friday, the head of the country's gas transportation system's press service Maksim Belyayevsky told RIA Novosti.
Ukraine stopped buying natural gas from Russia in July, after failing to agree a deal with Gazprom to extend the natural gas supply contract for the third quarter of 2015. Ukraine refused to buy Russian gas at the price of $247.18 per thousand cubic meters. According to Ukrainian media, the country pays around $360 per thousand cubic meters for natural gas purchased from EU countries.
"Compared to yesterday, the request for and actual delivery of natural gas from Slovakian territory grew by 18 percent, from 13.6 million to 16.5 million cubic meters per day," he said.
Ukraine began buying natural gas from EU countries in 2014, after pricing conflicts with Russian gas supplier Gazprom. The gas Ukraine gets through the "reverse" pipelines of its western neighbors is generally the same natural gas it would otherwise buy from Russia, although at a greatly reduced capacity.
