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National Joint Stock Company Naftogaz of Ukraine is in talks with state banks to attract $500 million in loan funds to buy natural gas from Russian Gazprom, Development Director of Naftogaz Yuriy Vitrenko told journalists at the International Forum "Fuel and Energy complex of Ukraine: Present and Future" on September 22.
"Naftogaz is confident that it will be able to receive $500 million for purchases of the Russian gas in case of signing the tripartite protocol," Vitrenko said.
According to Vitrenko, the company will attract the funds from state banks only after signing the gas supplies contract with Gazprom. The funds can be provided by Oschadbank, Ukrgazbank and Ukreximbank.
As UNIAN reported earlier, according to Energy MinisterVolodymyr Demchyshyn, Ukraine expects to sign a contract with Russia on natural gas supplies for the heating season on September 25. The minister said that the date had not yet been confirmed by the negotiating parties.
Naftogaz expects to negotiate a market price for Russian gas during the next round of talks.
Read alsoYatsenyuk: Russia eager to deprive Ukraine of $2 bln from gas transitIn its forecast for the planned gas reserves in the 2015-2016 heating season (19 bcm), the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine takes into account unfavorable weather conditions, as well as potential disruptions in coal supplies to Ukrainian power plants.
Currently, Ukraine has pumped around 15.2 billion cubic meters of natural gas in its underground storage facilities.
In late August, Demchyshyn noted that by mid-October, the start of the heating season, Ukraine would pump about 17 billion cubic meters of Russian gas, which has not yet been purchased, in its underground storage facilities.
UNIAN memo. On July 1, Ukraine suspended gas deliveries from Russia after fruitless talks in Vienna and significantly reduced its purchases from the EU. At this, Ukraine expects to mobilize enough funds from international financial organizations by October to secure necessary reserves in its underground gas storage facilities for the next heating season.