Gazprom Says Ukraine Paid for Gas Supplies, Averting New Spat

By Stephen Bierman

June 8 (Bloomberg) -- OAO Gazprom said Ukraine paid for imports of natural gas in May, averting a new phase in a dispute that led to a January halt in fuel shipments to Europe.

Ukraine paid for last month’s deliveries in full, Sergei Kupriyanov, a spokesman for Moscow-based Gazprom, said by telephone today.

Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko pledged 3.8 billion hryvnias ($500 million) on June 5 to ensure that NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy met a payment deadline two days later. Valentyn Zemlyanskyi, a Naftogaz spokesman, said the funds had been paid on that day.

Russia’s political leadership cast doubt on the ability of Ukraine, which has turned to the International Monetary Fund for a $16.4 billion loan, to pay for gas this year, threatening accords reached in January to resolve a dispute that affected 20 European countries.

Gazprom cut gas deliveries to neighboring Ukraine on Jan. 1 after talks with Naftogaz on a supply contract for 2009 collapsed the previous evening. Transit of gas from Russia via Ukraine, which transports about 80 percent of Gazprom’s exports to Europe, halted amid the conflict. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Yulia Timoshenko, his Ukrainian counterpart, reached agreements on Jan. 19 that got flows going again.

To contact the reporter on this story: Stephen Bierman in Moscow at sbierman1@bloomberg.net