Ukraine's Naftogaz Prepayment to Cover Only 5 Days of Russian Gas Supplies

The prepayment made by Ukraine's Naftogaz covers only five days of Russian gas deliveries to Ukraine.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Ukraine’s Naftogaz has made a prepayment for Russian gas that will cover only five days of delivery, Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller said Monday.

“Since the beginning of November, Ukraine has decreased its consumption of Russian gas threefold because of Naftogaz’s financial deficit. Gas prepayments only cover five days,” Miller told journalists.

Ukraine halted all natural gas purchases from Gazprom in July after the parties had failed to agree on the terms of gas deliveries for the third quarter of 2015.

In September, Moscow, Kiev and the European Commission reached a deal on the delivery of 2 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Ukraine during the peak consumption period, which started on October 1 and will last until the end of March in 2016.

On October 12, Gazprom announced that it had renewed deliveries to Ukraine after receiving $234 million in prepayment from the promised $500 million for October from Ukraine’s Naftogaz.