KIEV, Ukraine, Jan. 12 (UPI) -- Ukrainian state utility Naftogaz could find itself on the brink of default by the end of 2010, said an envoy to Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko.
Bohdan Sokolovskiy, Yushchenko's energy security envoy, said the embattled energy company might not make it through 2010 without serious financial troubles, Russia's state news agency RIA Novosti reports.
"Regrettably, there is the threat of a default," he said.
Kiev announced last week that it met its payment deadline to Moscow for December gas payments. The payment came after the International Monetary Fund said the Ukrainian government could use $2 billion from its National Bank reserves to pay for Russian gas deliveries.
The energy envoy said Naftogaz expected to pay roughly $10 billion in 2010 for Russian gas, though the company expected far less in gas revenue.
A January 2009 gas row between Moscow and Kiev prompted Russian energy giant Gazprom to cut gas supplies for weeks. That decision left European customers in the cold as roughly 80 percent of their Russian gas supplies travel through Soviet-era pipelines in Ukraine.
A contract settling that dispute placed strict requirements on Kiev in terms of gas purchases and payment deadlines. The global economic recession in 2009, meanwhile, sent the Ukrainian economy into a tailspin.
