MOSCOW, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Ukraine's state-run Naftogaz has paid $49.6 million owed to RosUkrEnergo, the intermediary gas-supply company, RosUkrEnergo said Friday.
The energy trader, which is half owned by Russia's state-owned Gazprom, wanted Naftogaz to replay a $372 million debt by Aug. 15.
"Naftogaz of Ukraine paid $49.6 million of its debt to use," a RosUkrEnergo spokesman said, according to RIA-Novosti news agency. "They sent the money at the start of the week, but we only confirmed that we had received it today."
The intermediary firm was set up in January following a pricing dispute between Gazprom and Ukraine that led to the world's largest gas company cutting off - temporality - Ukrainian supplies. Under a deal worked out later that month, Ukraine would get from RosUkrEnergo a mixture of Russian and Turkmen gas for which it would pay $95 per 1,000 cubic meters.
The contract for that price was due to have ended last month, but Russia indicated this week that Ukraine was unlikely to pay more for Russian natural gas at least until the end of the year.
