Kiev (Platts)--14May2015/758 am EDT/1158 GMT

* Payment to pay for 121.4 mil cu m of natural gas
* Russian gas imports at about 20 mil cu m/day
* Imports going into storage facilities

Ukraine wired $30 million as an upfront payment to Russian natural gas giant Gazprom on Wednesday to secure gas imports in May, the national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny said Thursday.

The payment of $30 million is enough to import about 121.4 million cu m of gas from Russia.

With the latest payment, Naftogaz wired a total of $180 million to Gazprom for Russian gas supplies since the beginning of the second quarter, according to Naftogaz.

The previous payment of $40 million was made on May 5.

Ukraine is buying Russian gas at $247.18/1,000 cu m in Q2, compared with $329/1,000 cu m in the first quarter.

Russia is the second largest supplier of natural gas to Ukraine.

Ukraine accelerated imports of gas from Europe in June 2014 after Russia, once its main gas supplier, had suspended supplies completely for six months.

Russia resumed its gas supplies to Ukraine in December 2014.

Meanwhile, Ukraine increased Russian gas imports in May to about 20 million cu m/day from about 10 million cu m/day in April as it has been seeking to inject more gas into its underground gas storage facilities in preparation for the next heating season.

Ukraine imported 235.9 million cu m of gas from Russia May 1-12, according to UkrTransGaz, the state-owned gas shipper.

Ukraine plans to store up to 19 Bcm of gas in the storage facilities by October 15, when the next six-month high-demand season is due to begin.

Ukraine's underground storage facilities contained 9.047 Bcm of natural gas as of May 13.

Ukrainian gas storage facilities, some of the largest in the world, are capable of storing up to 32 Bcm of gas and are used to steady Russian gas supplies to Europe during the winter.

--Alexander Bor, newsdesk@platts.com

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

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