Naftogaz pays Gazprom remainder of agreed gas debt

Ukraine’s state-controlled natural gas company Naftogaz has paid Russian producer Gazprom $1.65bn (€1.35bn) as part of the Brussels agreement from 30 October, Naftogaz has said.

The payment is the second tranche of the total of $3.1bn Ukraine was to pay by the end of this year for 11.5 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas supplied by Gazprom in November-December 2013 and April-June 2014. Naftogaz paid the first part of $1.45bn on 4 November.

Non-payment could have led to Gazprom stopping direct deliveries to Ukraine again.

Gazprom restarted natural gas supplies to Ukraine at 10:00 Moscow time on 9 December after the latter pre-paid volumes for December (see ESGM 9 December 2014).

Russia initially halted supplies on 16 June due to unpaid bills for previous supplies, amid disagreements over price. The restart of supplies to Ukraine came after Naftogaz paid Gazprom $378m in advance for 1bcm of gas for December on 5 December.

Ukrainian nominations were for Gazprom to deliver 43.5 million cubic metres/day throughout December, according to Gazprom.

However, Naftogaz has aimed to buy as little gas from Gazprom as possible before the end of the year, instead importing gas from Europe via Slovakia and Poland. This is because the oil-indexed gas price in the supply contract is expected to come down to $365/thousand cubic metres (kcm) from 1 January 2015, from the current price of $378/kcm. Katya Zapletnyuk