National joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy plans to prolong by five years a loan of $2 billion issued to the holding by Russian Gazprombank, Naftogaz Ukrainy Head Yevhen Bakulin told reporters in Kyiv on Wednesday.

"We're planning to prolong [the loan] for five years. We're working on this," he said.

Bakulin also noted that the Ukrainian parliament has to pass a draft law on granting government guarantees to prolong the loan.

As reported, Gazprombank, which provided a loan of $2 billion to Naftogaz Ukrainy last year that came due on June 24, 2013, is willing to extend the repayment date so long as the state guarantees repayment.

The Ukrainian government has asked the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, to provide that guarantee, according to amendments to the 2013 budget law the government submitted (draft law No. 2476).

Naftogaz made the request to prolong the repayment date for the Gazprombank loan, according to the explanatory note attached to the draft bill. Naftogaz said it was experiencing a shortage of working capital, owing to unsatisfactory rates of payment for natural gas by customers and the state regulation of prices for gas and heat supplied to households.

According to an annual report of the holding, in October 2013 the loan of $400 million issued by VTB Capital Plc (Britain) comes due. The loan was taken in October 2010 at 8.25% per annum.

Naftogaz Ukrainy unites oil and gas production assets in Ukraine, and is the country's gas transit, underground gas storage, and oil pipeline transportation monopoly.