National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy cannot buy gas at a price close to $500 per 1,000 cubic meters to pump to underground storage facilities and use it to support gas transit to the European Union (EU), Naftogaz Head Adnriy Kobolev said at a briefing in Kyiv on Friday, April 18.

"Naftogaz cannot buy gas at $500 per 1,000 cubic meters for its own needs for pumping to underground storage facilities to support transit. Everyone understands this and this is the external reality. We have to find a simple, but quick decision on how to access gas at market prices. We're not asking for any benefits. The price is around $350 per 1,000 cubic meters and even lower in Europe now," he said.

Kobolev said that gas for ensuring the peak demand in Europe from Ukrainian underground storage facilities is almost twice more than the volume of peak demand of Ukraine.

He also said that European countries are interested in settling the problem of reverse gas supplies via Slovakia to the same extent as Ukraine.