Public joint-stock company Ukrgazvydobuvannia plans to open one filling station and four compressed natural gas (CNG) stations in 2016.

Commercial Director Serhiy Fedorenko said at a press conference in Kyiv that the readiness of a multi-fuel filling station in Kharkiv is 80%.

He said that the company has land parcels to build from five to ten own CNG stations.

"This is cheap investment compared to other infrastructure projects. The cost of a CNG station is four or ten times cheaper than the cost of standard multi-fuel filling stations," Fedorenko said.

He said that the company needs to develop own filling station chain as the extra margin is received from sale of fuel at filling stations and there is a possibility of balancing at the wholesale auctions.

"If they do not want to five us a fair price, we can sell fuel at own filling stations," he said.

Ukrgazvydobuvannia Head Oleh Prokhorenko said that the company is also mulling cooperation with Ukravtogaz (a subsidiary of national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates around 80 CNG stations), which would allow boosting the retail sales without large capital investment.