Gazprom switching to pre-payment scheme for Ukraine gas deliveries

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian energy giant Gazprom has notified Ukraine’s Naftogaz that it will switch to a pre-payment scheme for gas deliveries, with the advance bill for June already prepared, Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kuprianov said Tuesday, May 13, according to RIA Novosti.

According to Gazprom’s gas price for deliveries to Ukraine’s Naftogaz, $485 per 1,000 cubic meters, the bill for June comes to $1.66 billion (for 3.42 billion cubic meters).

“The overall debt has reached $3.505 billion, and no one can doubt that this is a considerable and objective reason to invoke the provision figuring in the contract on the pre-payment. A preliminary bill has been sent for June, for 114 million cubic meters daily,” Kuprianov said.

Ukrainian state-run gas company Naftogaz must pay the bill by June 2, as June 1 is a Sunday, which is not a working day. Beginning June 3 the company will receive gas for Ukrainian consumers only in the volumes it has paid for in advance.

Gazprom earlier said it would stop deliveries of natural gas to Ukraine if Kiev failed to pre-pay by June 2. The company also voiced concerns that Naftogaz could fail to fulfill its commitments on gas transit, siphoning off gas destined for European consumers.