Ukraine cuts gas consumption for heating by 6% in 2013

Ukraine's heating enterprises reduced their natural gas consumption by around 6 percent year on year in 2013, Vice Prime Minister Oleksandr Vilkul said here Thursday. "Last year, gas consumption for thermal energy generation decreased to 10.1 billion cubic meters, down from 10.8 billion cubic meters in 2012," Vilkul told a conference on energy issues here. Ukraine has cut its gas consumption through the introduction of energy-saving technologies, reconstruction of heating infrastructure and use of alternative fuels, Vilkul said. Due to the relatively warm winter, Ukraine has healthy gas reserves. As of mid-January, the Eastern European country has accumulated 13.1 billion cubic meters of gas in its storage facilities. Last year, Ukraine imported around 30 billion cubic meters of gas, of which around 28 billion cubic meters were from Russia, down from 32.874 billion cubic meters a year ago.