In its official statment Gazprom confirmed that Naftogaz of Ukraine had paid off the entire amount it owed Gazprom for gas supplies in February 2009
In line with agreements reached earlier in Moscow, Ukraine must pay for each month's gas supplies by the 7th day of the following month. If payment is not made, the contract envisions a transfer to an advance payments system.
Earlier, Naftogaz of Ukraine reported that it had transferred the $50m for the gas shipments still due after it remitted the first payment of $360m Wednesday.
In February 2009, Naftogaz of Ukraine used around 1bln cubic meters of gas.
The Gazprom statement came a day after masked Ukrainian Security Service agents raided the headquarters of Naftogaz on Wednesday, sparking criticism from the prime minister.
The SBU security service, which is overseen by President Viktor Yushchenko, has accused Naftogaz of illegally diverting 6.3 billion cubic meters of natural gas bought from Russia.
Following news of the raid, Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the sole aim of the operation was to "paralyze Naftogaz's activities and destroy the gas distribution system in Ukraine and the system of payments. They wanted to frighten people."
Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyanskiy said earlier that the security service personnel demanded to be shown all the original documentation concerning the January 19 gas deal between Naftogaz and Russian gas giant Gazprom. However, he said the documents were not seized.
Source: RIA Novosti
Author:
Ksenia Kochneva
