KIEV, April 15 (Reuters) - Royal Dutch Shell haslaunched gas supplies to Ukraine and plans to pump at least 120to 130 million cubic meters this month, Ukrainian news agencyLiga said on Wednesday, quoting a government source.
The agency said Ukraine was receiving the gas via Slovakiaat a cost of $253 per 1,000 cubic meters, but did not identifythe origin of the gas.
The energy ministry could not be reached for immediatecomment. A Shell spokeswoman said: "Shell Energy Europe isoperating at a number of trading hubs in Europe and does notdisclose details of commercial agreements."
Ukraine started buying gas from European Union countries in2013 in a bid to reduce its dependence on expensive Russian gas.In 2014, it imported around 5 billion cubic meters from EUcountries or about 26 percent of overall gas imports.
Shell is the second global energy firm to pump gas toUkraine after Norway's Statoil signed a deal last yearto sell gas to Ukrainian state firm Naftogaz.
Ukraine, which consumes less than 50 billion cubic metres(bcm) of gas per year, produces about 20 bcm and imports therest.
Kiev traditionally imports most of its gas from Russia, butlast June Russia cut supplies over a price dispute. It resumedshipments in October after the two sides signed an interimagreement.
Earlier this month Naftogaz and Russia's Gazprom signed a new interim deal for cheaper supplies of gas fromRussia for the next three months and Kiev said this would allowit to start collecting gas for next winter.
Under the deal Kiev will buy Russian gas at $248 perthousand cubic metres in April through June. This compares withthe $329 it was paying for the same volume under the agreementfor the past winter. (Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by David Holmes)
