Ukraine's gas consumption diminished by almost 25 percent in 2015, and is set to diminish further, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk said Sunday.

"In the budget, we have kept the energy efficiency program with the aim of consuming less gas, paying less and planning our energy policy more efficiently. And this policy has already proven its effectiveness in the course of this year. We reduced the volume of natural gas consumption by almost 25 percent, this is a real result, and we will carry on doing this in 2016," the prime minister said on Ukrainian television.

The Ukrainian authorities' ultimate goal is to achieve total energy independence for the country in ten years, he added.

Ukraine currently consumes, on average, 50 million cubic meters less natural gas each day than in the previous year, saving $11.3 billion daily, Yatsenyuk said during his government’s annual report in early December. Ukraine aims to expand extraction and become a net exporter within the next ten years, he added.

/By Trend/