Ukraine has begun to pay its debt to the Itera International Group of Companies for previously consumed natural gas, Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko said last Tuesday (according to the Ministry for Fuel and Energy of Ukraine, Ukrainian companies’ gas debt to Itera had been more than UAH 500 million by the beginning of January. As of January 15, the debt of Ukrainian power companies alone reached $64.2 million).
“Today, the financial theme (relationships with ITERA, Interfax-Ukraine specifies, — V. K. ) is closed, and I think all payments have begun today,” the premier this claimed. In his words, Itera should resume “tomorrow or the day after” the supply of natural gas to Ukrainian power companies at the rate of 20 million cu. m. a day.
Mr. Yushchenko announced that the payment of the debt became possible thanks to the increased deposits of money paid for the electricity supplied into the account of the Enerhorynok state enterprise (up to UAH 40 million per day). There were UAH 115 million in this account, the premier said, “a considerable part of which was used to pay the ITERA debt.”
However, commenting on this statement, ITERA spokesman Nikolai Semenenko told The Daythe evening of January 31, “We have not given anybody such promises. Perhaps your premier meant that the debt would be paid off in the near future. I cannot comment on this. The point is that the debt has not been redeemed as of today, nor have we received any proposals (a debt payoff schedule) in this respect. Accordingly, the resumption of gas supplies to power companies is so far out of the question. They have been totally cut off.” Asked on what conditions the Ukrainian electric companies will pay for the gas they consumed while Itera discontinued the delivery, Mr. Semenenko said: “We do not know where this gas came from.”
