No flows: across Ukraine at the height of this winter's gas spat between Moscow and Kiev
- Dangerous culture of dependency
- Gazprom's stranglehold proving tough to break
- Kiev makes part-payment for Russian gas
- 'Russian gas transit still at risk'
- Ukraine to offer Russia small pipeline deal
- Ukraine to build record gas buffer
- The two faces of Gazprom
- Naftogaz starts pumping up stock piles
- Gazprom turns up heat on Ukraine
- Russian gas exports drop after pipe blast
- Russia says Ukraine credit tied to gas
Naftogaz makes gas storage plans
Naftogaz will start buying gas for storage once it receives pipeline transit payments from Russian giant Gazprom, the Ukrainian state-run outfit said.
Gazprom pays Ukraine $1.70 per 1000 cubic metres of gas per 100 kilometres for gas which travels across its territory to Europe. Russian gas accounts for a quarter of Europe's gas consumption and almost all of it goes through Ukraine.
Ukraine normally stores billions of cubic metres of gas for the winter months. In January a record 17 Bcm of gas stored allowed the country to survive a three-week gas cut-off from Russia during a dispute over prices and arrears, a Reuters report said.
Naftogaz, whose finances have been shaky for several years and needs constant government support, has said repeatedly that it has no money to buy gas for storage.
"We plan to sign the agreement (with Gazprom) soon - at the moment the details are being worked out," Naftogaz spokesman Valentyn Zemlyansky told Reuters.
The company said it expected a budget deficit of $4.5 billion by the end of this year, an amount that corresponds to the 20 Bcm of gas it wants to have in storage for this winter.
The details of the deal remain unclear. It is difficult to calculate how much Ukraine will earn from transit fees because gas consumption has dropped as the global financial crisis takes its tolls on European countries.
Russian gas transit to Europe via Ukraine sank in the first quarter of this year to less than half of 2008 levels - 16.4 Bcm against 34.7 Bcm