Slovakia has refused to admit Ukrainian specialists to its gas facilities to study the conditions of organization of gas reverse supply from the EU, Minister of Energy and Coal Industry of Ukraine Yuriy Prodan has said.

"They do not even want to admit our technicians, together with Slovak ones, to the gas metering station in Kapusany so that we can study technical documents and conditions for the organization of reverse supplies ... We are very serious about working with the European Commission to launch reverse gas supplies through Slovakia," he said at a press conference in Kyiv.

Prodan added that Slovakia proposes that Ukraine build a new pipeline at a cost of EUR 20 million over a term of construction of 14 months. The Ukrainian government considers such an initiative inappropriate.

The minister also added that Ukraine is interested in integration with the gas transportation system in Europe, in particular, the North-South gas transportation corridor.

"To integrate into this corridor, we need to build about 100 km of pipelines that will allow the European side to effectively use our underground gas storage facilities. The reserve of gas we are ready to pump from European countries today is about 15 billion cubic meters. And we are working on this with the European Commission," he concluded.

As reported, the organization of reverse gas supplies through Slovakia would allow the supply to Ukraine from the EU in this direction of up to 20 billion cubic meters of gas.

At present two reverse directions are available for Ukraine - through Poland and Hungary – with a total capacity of about 7.2 billion cubic meters of gas per year.