Ukraine has consumed much less natural gas since mid-December, which may mean Kiev is experiencing difficulty in paying for Russian gas supplies, the CEO of Russian energy giant Gazprom said on Friday.

"We assess the situation with [Ukraine's] payment for Russian gas supplies in December as very alarming," Alexei Miller said.

The deadline for Ukraine's payment for natural gas supplied in December has been moved from January 7 to January 11, 2010, due to the New Year holidays.

Earlier this month, the Ukrainian national energy company Naftogaz gave assurances that no new gas crisis with Russia was looming, as it had been paying for supplies on schedule.

Ukraine, which transits 80% of Russian gas to Europe, will receive a total of 27 bcm in 2009, compared to an average of 55 bcm in the pre-crisis years.

Ukraine has earlier asked Gazprom to cut natural gas supplies to 7 billion cubic meters in the first quarter of 2010, from 8.75 bcm under the existing contract.

Kiev, which has so far paid 20% less than Russian gas consumers in Europe, will start paying the average European price from January 1.

MOSCOW, December 25 (RIA Novosti)