Naftogaz pays Gazprom for gas supplied in November

11:20

Ukraine's state gas company has paid Russia's Gazprom in full and on time for gas imported in November 2009, the Ukrainian company's press service has reported.

"The company received the necessary confirmations from the banks," the press service said, declining to specify the amount of the payment.

Acting Finance Minister Ihor Umansky said this week that Naftogaz would pay around $770 million for Russian gas supplied in November. At the same time, Naftogaz CEO Oleh Dubyna said a week earlier that the purchase of 3.6 billion cubic meters of gas supplied in November at the current price of $208.12 per 1,000 cubic meters could cost an estimated $750 million.

In order to pay for gas supplied in October, the Ukrainian government converted around $480 million worth of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) allocated by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), sold the currency to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), and then, using the funds raised, bought some of the Naftogaz sovereign bonds that were added to the company's statutory capital early in August this year.

Vice Premier Hryhoriy Nemyria said that problems with gas payments for October had arisen due to the NBU's refusal to monetize Naftogaz's sovereign bonds, although, he said, agreement on this had been reached this summer.

As a result, the government had to appeal to the IMF concerning the conversion of SDRs, he said. Nemyria said that such a scheme would also be used to make payments for Russian gas supplied in November.

Umansky said that the government had converted another 800 million SDRs ($1.28 billion) in mid November.

04.12.2009