KIEV, April 17, (RIA Novosti, Vladimir Suprun) - President Viktor Yushchenko said Monday that Ukraine has paid its debt on Russian natural gas supplies for the first two months of the year.
"Settlements for January and February have been made," he said. "March payments are on the agenda. The two sides are now in negotiations on the amount due, the schedule, and procedure."
Yushchenko said Ukraine's national oil and gas company, Naftogaz, had briefed him on "settlement options and procedures."
Last week, Konstantin Borodin, director of the Ukrainian Center for Energy Studies, said Naftogaz had an outstanding debt of $700 million to joint venture Rosukrenergo for natural gas shipments, including $200 million for February and $500 million for March.
Russian Energy and Industry Minister Viktor Khristenko said in mid-February that it would be impractical to replace Rosukrenergo as the intermediary in an agreement between Russia and Ukraine struck at the start of the year, but did not rule out the idea completely.
Rosukrenergo, 50% of which is owned by a subsidiary of Russian gas giant Gazprom with the other 50% held by Austria's Raiffeisen Bank, was chosen to form a joint venture with Naftogaz under a January 4 deal that ended a bitter dispute over gas prices between Russia and Ukraine.
"Under the agreements, Rosukrenergo is a trader working mostly with gas from Central Asia [including Turkmenistan] and a structure operating on Ukrainian and Western markets," Khristenko said.
Gazprom subsidiary Gazprombank owns 50% of Rosukrenergo, the sole supplier of Russian and Turkmen gas to Ukraine.
