Gazprom announces receiving $1.65Bln final installment on Ukraine's gas debt

© Sputnik/ Ilya Pitaliov

Russian energy giant Gazprom confirmed it had received $1.65 billion from Ukraine on Wednesday as the final portion of Kiev's planned $3.1 billion gas debt repayment.

"We have just received $1.65 billion from [Ukraine's state-run oil and gas company] Naftogaz in our account," Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov said.

After a six-month break, Russia resumed gas sales to Ukraine on December 9 under a deal stipulating that Ukraine repays $3.1 billion of its $5.3 billion gas debt and pay for future supplies in advance.

© Sputnik/ Sergey Starostenko

Naftogaz offices

The first debt repayment tranche of $1.45 billion and a prepayment for 1 billion cubic meters of gas were received by Gazprom earlier this month.

"However, the issue of gas supplies to Ukraine in January is still unsettled: we have received no advance payments so far," Kupriyanov said.

In June, Gazprom introduced a prepayment system for gas deliveries to Ukraine in light of Kiev's large gas debt. In October, Gazprom and Naftogaz agreed on the "winter package" deal, securing gas deliveries to Ukraine until March 2015.

On December 22, Ukrainian Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchishin said that the country had so far purchased about 300 million cubic meters of Russian gas.

On the same day, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak expressed hope that Moscow and Kiev would continue cooperating over gas deliveries beyond the Gazprom-Naftogaz ten-year contract on gas transit and supply which expires in 2019.