Naftogaz back in black after tax delay
Ukrainian state-run player Naftogaz, hammered by rising gas import prices, ended 2008 with 11.6 billion hryvnias ($1.5 billion) net profit after the government rescheduled tax payments, the company said today.
Naftogaz, whose debts to Russia's giant Gazprom sparked a three-week stand-off in January leading to gas supply cuts to Europe, had a loss of 12.1 billion hryvnias in 2007, a Reuters report said.
At the end of last year, the government gave Naftogaz 12 months to pay 3.9 billion hryvnias in tax.
Its finances were also boosted after a supply intermediary was scrapped last year, allowing it to sell gas to the industry, a more lucrative market than the consumer market, where prices have been kept below levels paid for Russian gas.
The company said it had imported 47.9 billion cubic metres of Russian gas last year at a cost of $8.6 billion.
Naftogaz will have to repay a $500 million Eurobond in September. It had been close to, but avoided, technical default twice after it failed to hand in its audited results on time to bondholders.