Miller: Ukraine to Take Gazprom Loan for Gas

Gazprom is set to advance a loan of $2 billion to Ukraine to pay for gas imports, CEO Alexey Miller has said.

Ukraine, which has been pushing for lower prices from Gazprom for some time now, has publicly stated that it is actively seeking to diversify its supply away from the Russian supplier, in light of Gazprom's failure to lower prices.

However, Mr. Miller said that it would forward an amount of $2 billion to Ukraine to pay for its supply this coming winter, to ensure that Ukrainian supply remained consistent and also to protect against any disruption in supply from Ukraine to the rest of Europe.

"Without a doubt, this agreement is very important to secure the pumping of gas into underground storages in Ukraine in necessary volumes in order to meet peak demand in 2012/2013," Reuters reports Mr. Miller as saying.

 "This is very good news for our European partners, for our consumers, as full Ukrainian storages are a firm guarantee of Russian gas transit next winter."

A severe cold snap in February of this year left Gazprom unable to fulfill all of its gas supply contracts to European countries, particularly to Italy, Poland and Germany. An accusation from Gazprom at that time that the decrease in supply was down to the Ukraine siphoning gas for itself served to enflame the ongoing dispute between the two countries, motivating much of Ukraine's current focus on alternative supply.