BRUSSELS—Ukraine could be importing gas from the European Union via Slovakia by November, receiving some 7 billion cubic meters a year initially, Carlos Pascual, the U.S. State Department’s special energy envoy, said Saturday.

Speaking at a German Marshall Fund event in Brussels, Pascual said that gas flows through Slovakia to Ukraine could eventually reach 15 billion cubic meters a year.

Ukraine’s total gas consumption is currently around 50 billion cubic meters a year.

“This is something that with the right political will” can happen by November, Pascual said.

The U.S. envoy was in Ukraine in the past few days and discussed the issue with the energy minister in Kiev’s interim government.

The EU sought to broker a gas deal between Slovak and Ukraine authorities last year which would have allowed imported Russian gas to be exported from the bloc to Ukraine via a Slovak pipeline—a so-called reverse west to east gas flow.

The move was part of efforts to deepen EU-Ukraine ties and to ease Ukraine’s dependence on Russian gas imports.

However, Ukrainian state-owned gas transporter Ukrtransgas failed to sign the deal with Slovak company Eustream while former President Viktor Yanukovych was in office.

To make the gas flows work, an interconnector costing around $20 million needs to be built to hook up the pipelines.

Pascual said the EU executive will hold fresh talks with Slovak and Ukrainian officials next week to broker an accord.

He said the interim Ukraine government had made clear it was “very willing” to sign up for the reverse gas Slovak deal during his Kiev visit.