KIEV: Russia’s Gazprom has confirmed receiving $40 million from Ukraine’s Naftogaz as an advance payment for gas supplies.”We received $40 million,” a Gazprom source said Wednesday as quoted by RIA.Earlier on Tuesday Naftogaz reported delivering the prepayment to Gazprom.
Naftogaz paid Gazprom $110 million in April as prepayment, according to official statements. Gazprom, in turn, delivered 261 million cubic meters of gas to Ukraine from 1 to 27 April.
The Ukrainian company is making prepayment for gas to Gazprom in small sums of $15-40 million. Ukraine isn’t able to pay off its debts as the country’s economy has been in a deep crisis since the Maidan protests at the end of 2013. Ukraine’s debt for Russian gas alone is currently more than $2 billion.
On April 1 Gazprom and Naftogaz signed an additional agreement on gas supplies for the second quarter of 2015, known as the ‘summer package’. The price of Russian gas is $247.18 per one thousand cubic meters which includes a $100 discount. The new deal also requires prepayment.
On the same day Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev extended Ukraine’s preferential terms to July 1, 2015, and said the discount won’t be more than $100 per thousand cubic meters.
The head of Naftogaz Andrei Kobolev said this month that the company is going to attract foreign investment of around $1.5 billion by the summer, so it can pump 6 billion cubic meters of gas into underground storage. On April 15 the Ukrainian government agreed gas consumption of 40 billion cubic meters in 2015. Imports will makeup 25 billion cubic meters of that the Energy Ministry reported.
