KIEV, November 5 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine has received the first 3.3 million cubic meters of natural gas from Germany’s RWE, the newspaper Zerkalo Nedeli Ukraina reported on Monday, citing a source in the energy and coal ministry.
Under a contract with the German utility, Ukraine's state-controlled oil and gas company Naftogaz is due to receive up to 8 million cubic meters of gas in the first week of November.
There has been no official comment from the Energy Ministry yet.
The newspaper earlier reported Naftogaz and RWE Supply & Trading signed a contract for annual deliveries of 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas with a possible increase to 4-5 billion.
RWE is the first European utility to send gas from west to east, breaking Gazprom’s monopoly on gas exports to Ukraine.
Gas will be delivered to Ukraine via Poland by reversing one of the lines that connect the two countries' transportation systems at Drozdovichi.
Ukrainian authorities, including Energy Minister Yuriy Boyko, have proposed Ukraine should buy gas on spot markets as an alternative to Russian gas.
