UPDATE: Gazprom suspends gas supplies to Ukraine until next payment

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MOSCOW, Nov 25 (PRIME) -- Russian gas giant Gazprom has suspended supplies of natural gas to Ukraine until it makes the next payment, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller told reporters Wednesday.

“Today, as of 10.00 a.m. (Moscow time), Naftogaz Ukrainy has taken off the prepaid volume of Russian gas. A new prepayment has not come. There is no request for gas supplies filed by Naftogaz Ukrainy. So, the exports are suspended until the Ukrainian company transfers new payments,” he said.

Maxim Belyavsky, a spokesman for the country’s gas transportation system operator Ukrtransgaz, told PRIME that Ukraine is still waiting for 5 million cubic meters of gas from Russia on Wednesday. Kiev has imported almost 400 million cubic meters of gas from Russia in November, he added.

Miller said that Ukraine has already started taking gas off its underground storages actively before cold weather sets in, but storages had not been adequately filled in the first place.

“The rejection from purchases of Russian gas creates serious risks for reliable transit of gas through the territory of Ukraine to Europe and for gas delivery to Ukrainian consumers during the upcoming winter,” he said.

In September, Moscow, Brussels, and Kiev initialed an October–December agreement, under which Ukraine will finance Russian gas purchases with a $500 million aid from the E.U. and Russia will provide a discount of around $20 per 1,000 cubic meters. With the discount, the contracted gas price for the period stands at $227.36 per 1,000 cubic meters.

As of October 29, Ukraine’s total prepayment for gas supplies amounted to $518 million. The last prepayment on November 5 amounted to $24 million.

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