MOSCOW, March 6 (RIA Novosti) – Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz Ukrainy said Thursday that it has fully paid for January deliveries of Russian natural gas.
The company, which still owes Russia’s energy giant Gazprom about $1.43 billion for gas delivered last year, did not specify the amount of payment, but Gazprom said last month that Ukraine had received gas supplies worth over $658 million in January.
Naftogaz bought about 13 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia in 2013 at the rate of $400 per thousand cubic meters.
That price was substantially reduced in December to $268.5 per thousand cubic meters as part of a raft of support mechanisms devised by Russia for Ukraine following the latter’s decision in late November to back away from signing a deal that would have deepened political and economic relations with the European Union.
Under the arrangement between Naftogaz and Gazprom, the size of the discount was to be determined on the first day of every new quarter and formalized within 10 days.
Following last month’s ouster of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Gazprom announced on March 4 that it will annul its discount on natural gas sales to Ukraine from April.
