Russia's Gazprom on Friday, January 6, increased an application for Russian gas transit via the Ukrainian gas transport system (GTS) by 10% compared to first days of January, to 278.9 million cubic meters (mcm), Spokesman for pubic joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz Maskym Beliavsky has said.

"By the way, Gazprom today sent the expanded application for transit to Europe – 278.9 mcm. Of course, due to freezing temperatures," he wrote on his Facebook page.

Average daily transit of Russian gas via the Ukrainian GTS on January 1 through January 4 was 252.2 mcm.

Earlier national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy stated that transit via the Ukrainian GTS in the last ten days of December 2016 fell after the European Commission made the decision to expand access of Gazprom to the OPAL gas pipeline.