Ukraine to start taking prepaid Russian gas on Monday
Ukraine's taking of Russian gas prepaid for by Naftogaz Ukrainy last Friday is due to begin on Monday, according to Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn.
"One billion cubic meters of gas were prepaid for on Friday. We will start taking [gas] on Monday," he said in an interview with channel 1+1 on Sunday night.
Ukraine has been daily consuming over 200 million cubic meters of gas in the past few days, including gas currently produced by domestic fields, stored in underground facilities and imported from Europe, he said. Gas imported from Russia will add to these resources on Monday.
Gazprom has confirmed Naftogaz' prepayment required for resuming the delivery of Russian gas to Ukraine.
The Naftogaz payment has yet to reach the company's account. So far, the money is in a correspondent account of Gazprombank at a U.S. bank; it is due to be transferred to the Gazprom account on Monday.
Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told Interfax on Sunday night that the Russian company "had begun to fill the system with gas."
Former Ukrainian Energy and Coal Industry Minister Yuriy Prodan told reporters earlier that technically Russian gas deliveries could start two days after Ukraine paid upfront for the gas.
Prior to that, Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller said that a supplemental agreement to the gas contract between Naftogaz Ukrainy and Gazprom signed in Brussels on October 30 envisaged the maximal daily delivery of 114 million cubic meters of Russian gas to Naftogaz.