Ukrainian regional gas supply companies (oblgaszbyty) for the year increased debts for the natural gas purchased from the state holding Naftogaz Ukrainy twice - to 20.4 billion hryvnia, the company's press service said.. "As of January 9, 2018, the total debt of these companies was 20.4 billion hryvnia (excluding the volume of gas that was delivered in December), having doubled over the past 12 months," the company said.. According to the NAC, "Naftogaz" plans to publish weekly information on the debts of obgazsbytov to avoid further uncontrolled growth of debts of these companies. Naftogaz also expressed concern over the current procedure for making payments for gas, which is released to Oblgasses and is supplied to final consumers - recipients of benefits and subsidies. As reminded in NAK, according to the legislation, which has been in effect since the beginning of 2018, the Oblgasses receive blue fuel for such categories of consumers exclusively from Naftogaz. However, at the same time, the legislation allows these companies to use part of the money received from consumers, including payments from the state budget, that were spent for unprotected categories of consumers, to use to pay for gas that was purchased by other wholesale suppliers (not from Naftogaz).

"Under the new rules, we are obliged to supply gas, but gas reserves will be able to send the money received for it to settle with other companies. This is not a monetization, but the creation of an opportunity for withdrawing money from Naftogaz and from the state budget of Ukraine, "said the head of Naftogaz Andrey Kobolev. In "Naftogaz" add that the growth of debt obggazsbytov lead to a deterioration in financial results of the NAC and a decrease in the holding's payments to the state budget.

Original article: Gazsbyt owed Naftogaz over UAH 20 billion.