The discount to the price of Russian natural gas settled during the latest autumn trilateral gas talks has allowed national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy to save UAH 1 billion, Energy and Coal Industry Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Demchyshyn has said.

"UAH 1 billion was saved on the discount on gas that we managed to receive from Russia thanks to effective talks only for the fourth quarter of 2015," he said at a meeting of the profile parliamentary committee on February 5.

The minister also said that in October 2015, 40% of gas consumption by Ukrainian industry was gas imported by private companies.

As reported, the Russian government approved $24.60 discount per 1,000 cubic meters of Russian gas for the fourth quarter of 2015, while the price in the contract was $252 per 1,000 cubic meters, which means that Ukraine was able to buy gas at $227.40 per 1,000 cubic meters.

The discount for the first quarter of 2016 was reduced to $17.77 per 1,000 cubic meters and the price of gas for Ukraine is around $212.23 per 1,000 cubic meters. However, Ukraine believes that this is a high price.

After talks held in September 2015 with Gazprom, Naftogaz Ukrainy bought 2 billion cubic meters of gas in October and almost 400 million cubic meters of gas in November, and stopped purchases from November 25.