European Energy Commissioner Meeting Ukraine Counterpart

Russia cut off gas to Ukraine last month over pricing row; Gas storage ample for now.

European Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger will meet Ukraine's energy minister on Thursday to discuss the gas price crisis between Moscow and Kiev, but no date has been set for the wider talks needed to get a solution.

Commission spokeswoman Sabine Berger said Oettinger would meet Ukraine's Yuri Prodan in Brussels later on Thursday as part of a series of negotiations following Gazprom's cut off of gas to Kiev.

"To come to a solution to the overall question, we of course need to have a trilateral meeting," Berger told journalists.

"The aim is to have such a meeting again, but currently no date has been fixed."

Ukraine depends on Russia for more than half of its gas needs. The nation is also the transit route for roughly half of the gas Russia supplies to the European Union, which counts on Gazprom for about 30 percent of its consumption.

Previous pricing disputes between Moscow and Kiev resulted in knock-on disruptions for EU customers, but no nation has reported shortages since Russia cut supplies to Ukraine last month, and the amount of gas in storage is ample.

The gas row has complicated a deeper conflict over Russia's seizure of Ukraine's Crimea region earlier this year and Kiev's decision to seek closer ties with the European Union, rather than Moscow.

Talks on possible new EU sanctions on Russia were taking place in Brussels on Thursday.

Reporting by Barbara Lewis