OREANDA-NEWS. Naftogaz Ukrainy did not receive any offers to extend the contract for the transit of natural gas with Russia for one year. This was stated by the company's executive director Yuri Vitrenko, answering a question from a Russian media correspondent. “Nobody has offered us such options”, he said on Facebook.

On October 2, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the Russian Energy Week forum that Russia is ready to sign a contract with Ukraine on gas transit based on European legislation if Kiev manages to implement EU energy legislation before the end of this year. Otherwise, the President of the Russian Federation continued, the Russian side is ready to extend the contract with Ukraine for gas transit for a year. According to him, Russia has long been ready for negotiations with Ukrainian partners on this issue, but they "couldn't form the necessary authorities in any way that would be authorized to conduct negotiations of this kind".

Vitrenko said on Thursday that earlier the Ukrainian regulator in the energy sector, as well as the government, said they would manage to implement EU legislation before the end of 2019. He also recalled Naftogaz’s proposal that a new gas transit contract could imply a “swap” principle, when the Russian side would transfer to Ukraine a certain amount of gas at the Ukraine-Russian border, after which Kiev would transfer exactly the same amount of gas at the border Ukraine - the EU. Vitrenko also called unacceptable for Kiev proposals to refuse claims to Gazprom related to the payment of debt to Ukraine by decision of the Stockholm arbitration.

In addition, the Ukrainian side is counting on a constructive dialogue with Russia during tripartite consultations on gas. The current contract for gas transit from Russia to the European Union expires on December 31, 2019.