Gazprom gas bill for $7 b is 3 months of pension payments, says Azarov

Ukraine will continue to do all it can to secure its energy independence, and Gazprom's recent bill for $7 billion represents three months of payments to the country's pensioners, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has said.

"The country is making colossal efforts to ensure its energy independence, and it is moving financing from everywhere and putting it toward these goals. And you know why," the prime minister said during a meeting with representatives of the National Union of Journalists in Kyiv on Friday.

"The latest bill presented to us by Gazprom is a gigantic amount of $7 billion. That is roughly three months of pension payments to all of our pensioners," he said.

Naftogaz Ukrainy recently confirmed reports that it had received a $7 billion claim from Gazprom for gas Ukraine failed to import last year under its 2009 contract terms. The company said it had paid all bills received from Gazprom ahead of the deadlines and in full and had repeatedly notified the Russian company that it planned to reduce its purchases of gas in 2012.

Ukraine cut its natural gas imports 26.5% to 32.939 billion cubic meters (bcm) last year. Almost all the gas was imported from Russia by Naftogaz Ukrainy and Dmytro Firtash's Cyprus-based OstChem Holding, Ltd. The minimum obligation under the 'take or pay' stipulation is 41.6 bcm.

Naftogaz Ukrainy imported 24.9 bcm of Russian gas under its contract with Gazprom last year and about 55 million cubic meters under a contract with Germany's RWE using a reverse-flow scheme.