Ukraine gets half-billion-dollar loan for Russian gas purchases

Ukraine's state-run energy firm Naftogaz said Monday it has received a loan worth 500 million U.S. dollars from international financial institutions to cover its purchases of natural gas from Russia.

"The funds are already in the special account of Naftogaz in one of the state banks. They are reserved for the purchases of gas from Gazprom and we will spend them gradually, as may be required from time to time," Naftogaz Chairman Andrey Kobolev told reporters, without identifying the lenders.

In particular, Ukraine plans to use the financing package to import about 2 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia over the next month to fill up its underground storage facilities, Kobolev said.

Ukraine, which consumes about 300 million cubic meters of gas per day, has accumulated 15.475 billion cubic meters of fuel in its storage facilities as of Sept. 24.

In mid-July, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it was ready to allocate a loan for Ukraine to finance its gas imports from Russia, which were suspended earlier that month as the two sides failed to reach an agreement on pricing.

On Saturday, Kiev and Moscow reached a preliminary deal on resumption of supplies till March 2016 during talks in Brussels mediated by the European Union. Endit