Ukraine's state gas company Naftogaz has paid on time and in full for gas supplied by Russia's Gazprom in August, Naftogaz's press service has told Interfax-Ukraine.
“The payment for August was made in full,” Naftogaz spokesman
Valentyn Zemliansky said. He declined to specify any other details.
Ukraine’s Acting Finance Minister Ihor Umansky said earlier that
Naftogaz was to pay $667 million for Russian gas supplied in August,
compared to the $605 million paid by the company for gas supplied in
July – a figure given by Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
Naftogaz said the amounts of gas supplied in July and August were roughly identical, at approximately 3.3 billion cubic meters.
The gas contracts signed in January 2009 and running to 2019 include
take-or-pay provisions requiring Naftogaz to purchase at least 80% of
the contracted amount for the year. Under those provisions, Naftogaz
would have to purchase a minimum of 32 billion cubic meters this year
and 41.6 billion cubic meters next year.
Throughout the first half of the year Naftogaz purchased less than
the amount stipulated in the contract. It was to have purchased 5
billion cubic meters in the first quarter, 10 billion cubic meters in
the second, 12 billion cubic meters in the third and 12.5 in the
fourth. In fact, Naftogaz purchased just 2.8 billion cubic meters in
the first quarter and about 5.7 billion cubic meters in the second.
That formally gives Gazprom the right to fine Naftogaz an amount
that President Viktor Yuschenko has estimated at $5.25 billion.
However, at a meeting of the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers in
Poland on September 1, it was agreed that Ukraine would only pay for
the gas it needs.
Naftogaz has been purchasing about 3.3 billion cubic meters of gas a
month in the third quarter. In order to meet contract provisions, it
would have to purchase 16.9 billion cubic meters in the remaining four
months or about 4.2 billion cubic meters a month.
Analysts say that Naftogaz is shifting the bulk of its purchases to
the second half of the year in anticipation of lower prices. It paid
$360 per 1,000 cubic meters in the first quarter, $271 in the second
and $198 in the third. The price of gas in the fourth quarter is
expected to decline slightly from the third quarter level, or remain
unchanged.
