KIEV, June 26 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz Ukrainy has asked the government for $1 billion to repay a debt to trader Rosukrenergo for supplies of natural gas, a government official said Monday.
Valentyn Mondryevskiy, a spokesman for Ukraine's prime minister, said the debt also included extra volumes of natural gas pumped into underground storage facilities. Naftogaz is seeking to ally concerns over the consequences of a possible repetition of a spat in January with Russian energy giant Gazprom by pumping gas into the facilities. Last week, it said it had 5 billion cubic meters out of a planned 23.3 billion cu m in its facilities.
Earlier Ukraine's Fuel and Energy Minister Ivan Plachkov said that Nafotgaz debt to Rosukrenergo stood at $600 million.
Rosukrenergo is 50% owned by a subsidiary of Russian energy giant Gazprom and the other 50% is held by Austria's Raiffeisen Investment.
