KIEV, Jan. 24 – Ukraine’s national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny will soon be split into several companies as part of reform in the energy sector, President Viktor Yanukovych said Thursday.

The reform echoes earlier plans to split Naftogaz into natural gas extracting, gas transportation and gas trading companies in line with demands from the European Union.

The split was a condition imposed by the EU back in 2009 for investing in modernization of Ukrainian gas pipelines that move a bulk of Russian gas to consumers in Europe.