Ukrainia's state-run energy company Naftogaz will likely suffer an annual loss of about 2.25 billion U. S. dollars in 2013, Coal and Energy Minister Eduard Stavytskiy said here Wednesday, according to Xinhua.
"The Ukrainian government has approved the Naftogaz draft financial plan for 2013 with projected losses of 2.25 billion dollars," Stavytskiy told a briefing.
The figure represents a substantial decrease as the government in mid-June estimated the budget gap of the financially troubled company at 4 billion dollars.
Naftogaz, which pays about 400 dollars per 1,000 cubic meters for Russian natural gas, last year reported its annual loss at 1. 28 billion dollars. In 2012, Ukraine imported around 32.926 billion cubic meters of natural gas, of which 32.874 billion cubic meters were from Russia.
The Ukrainian government usually covers Naftogaz losses, as compensation for the difference in the price it pays for Russian gas and domestic utility tariffs.
Reducing Naftogaz's losses by raising local utility tariffs is among the International Monetary Fund's requirements for granting a new 15-billion-dollar loan to Kiev.
