Ukraine May Get $1.7 Billion From International Lenders for Gas

International lenders will consider offering Ukraine as much as $1.7 billion in loans to support its overhaul of the natural-gas industry and increase the security of gas supplies from Russia to the European U-nion.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the World Bank and the European Investment Bank may give loans to the Ukrainian government and state-run energy company NAK Naftogaz Ukrainy, the lenders said in a joint statement with the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund late yesterday.
Ukraine, a gas-transit country battered by the global economic crisis and already supported by a $16.4 billion bailout from the IMF, is seeking funds to ensure it has sufficient Russian gas to pump into underground storage before the European winter. A price dispute between those two nations in January left more than 20 countries without gas for almost two weeks.

The EU and the international lenders will “work together in the development of a support package to the Ukrainian authorities designed to assist in developing a sustainable solution to Ukraine’s medium-term gas transit and gas payment obligations,” they said in the statement.

Bloomberg