"As of now, households and [state-funded] enterprises are facing no gas supply shortages," Oleh Dubyna told President Viktor Yushchenko as quoted by the presidential press service.
He said that as of Friday 61.9 million cu m of gas was being produced in the country each day, adding that since the start of the year domestic production had been 860 million cu m, instead of the planned 586 million cu m.
Ukraine's own production meets 60% of gas demand by households and state organizations, while industrial producers, which consume 70 million cu m of gas daily, depend on imported gas.
The country consumes some 74 billion cu m of natural gas a year, 52-54 billion cu m of which is imported.
Kiev and Moscow have been embroiled in a bitter dispute over debt and gas prices for Ukraine in 2009, which resulted in the suspension of deliveries to Ukraine on January 1. A week later, Gazprom cut off supplies to Europe via Ukraine, accusing Kiev of stealing gas intended for EU consumers. Ukraine has denied the accusation.
