KIEV: Ukraine reduced natural gas consumption by around 11 percent in the first nine months of this year to 19 billion cubic meters (bcm), mostly due to a smaller usage by industry, Ukrainian state-run gas transport firm Ukrtransgaz said on Monday. Ukraine, which had faced a significant decrease in industrial production due to military conflict in its eastern regions, reduced gas consumption by 20.6 percent to 33.7 bcm in 2015.
Ukrtransgaz said in a statement Ukraine had imported 6.3 bcm of gas in January-September and produced 15.1 bcm of gas. Ukraine, which used to meet its gas needs with imports of Russian gas, has not bought gas directly from Russia since November 2015, importing instead from Europe, mostly from Slovakia. Relations between Ukraine and Russia have suffered since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.
