UPDATE 1-Ukraine to buy up to 1.5 bcm of Russian gas this year – newspaper
(Adds Naftogaz comment, context)
KYIV Nov 14 (Reuters) – Ukraine plans to buy up to 1.5
billion cubic metres of gas from Russia by the end of the year
and up to 1 bcm in 2015, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuri Prodan
said in an interview with newspaper Novoye Vremya.
Russia, which cut off supplies to Ukraine in June because of
a standoff over prices, has insisted that Ukraine pay for future
supplies in advance. Until now Kyiv has not committed to new
orders as a separatist conflict weighs on its flagging economy.
“Our preliminary plans are to buy up to 1.5 billion by the
end of the year and, depending on the weather, up to 1 billion
in the next,” Prodan was quoted as saying.
Moscow, Kyiv and the European Union clinched a deal two
weeks ago in Brussels that would restart flows of Russian gas to
Ukraine over the winter in return for Ukrainian state energy
firm Naftogaz paying part of its debt and $760 million up front
for supplies.
Naftogaz has since transferred the first $1.45 billion
tranche of debt repayment to Russia’s Gazprom, but has
not said when it would place new orders, nor for what volume.
Naftogaz declined to confirm Prodan’s comments and its chief
executive Andriy Kobolev said there was no hurry to order fresh
supplies.
“We now have the right to make a prepayment at any time and
buy the volume we need to cover the deficit this winter,” he
said at a roundtable on Friday.
Russia used to supply around 50 percent of Ukraine’s gas
needs.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Writing by Alessandra Prentice,
editing by Elizabeth Piper and Jason Bush)