OREANDA-NEWS. October 09, 2012. The work of modern drilling site "Independence" will allow Ukraine to produce annually 1 billion cubic meters of gas. This was announced today by Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov during a meeting with employees of the educational sphere.

"It is clear that this drilling site operates not tomorrow. It is only up to the end of the year will start to drill and extract gas actually starts at the end of 2013 year.

But it is operating and we will receive annually an additional 1 billion cubic meters of gas", says Mykola Azarov. However, he stressed that for each cubic meter of gas Ukraine pays Russia ultra-high price.