Ukraine wires $20 mil to Gazprom for April gas supplies

Kiev (Platts)--20Apr2015/753 am EDT/1153 GMT

* Latest payment means Ukraine prepays for 283.2 mil cu m in Apr
* Russian gas imports less than 10 mil cu m/day


Ukraine wired $20 million as an upfront payment to Gazprom to secure imports of Russian gas in April, national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny said Monday.

"The payment was made on April 17," a Naftogaz spokesperson said.

After the latest payment, Naftogaz has wired a total of $70 million to Gazprom for Russian natural gas supplies in April, according to Naftogaz.

The first payment of $30 million was transferred to Gazprom on April 2, while the second payment of $20 million was paid on April 9.

On April 1, Ukraine and Russia reached a new deal on gas supplies in the second quarter after the previous deal, known as the "winter package," expired on March 31.

Under the new deal, Gazprom reduced its gas price to $247.18 per 1,000 cu m in the second quarter from $329/1,000 cu m in the first.

The $70 million is enough to import about 283.2 million cu m of gas from Russia.

Ukraine, which is importing less than 10 million cu m/day from Russia, received about 149 million cu m of gas worth $36.8 million between April 1 and April 17.

Ukraine is relying increasingly on gas imports from Europe after Russia, once its main supplier, completely suspended gas deliveries in June 2014 due to a dispute over gas prices.

Russia resumed supplies in December 2014 after a six-month suspension.

Russia now is the second-largest supplier of gas to Ukraine.

Ukraine imported 593 million cu m of gas from Europe between April 1 and April 15, according to the state gas shipper UkrTransGaz.

--Alexander Bor, newsdesk@platts.com
--Edited by Jonathan Dart, jonathan.dart@platts.com

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