Natural gas stocks in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities currently amount to about 16.5 billion cubic meters (bcm), Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Eduard Stavytsky has said at a press conference in Kyiv.

However, he said that 8 billion cubic meters of gas of this volume is the gas purchased at the price of more than $400 per 1,000 cubic meters.

In this regard, the minister said that despite the decline from January 1, 2014 of the purchase price of Russian gas the ceiling price of gas for industrial consumers and budget organizations would be declined during the year.