Ukraine's state-owned natural gas company, Naftogaz, said Thursday that international financial institutions may provide a $4.2-billion loan to Ukraine to enable it to fill its underground storages with Russian gas.
Alternatively, Naftogaz said, European energy companies may consider paying for the gas to be pumped into the storages.
Ukraine stores Russian gas in the summer and uses it in the winter when Russian gas exports to Europe peak.
Naftogaz said that the issue of the payment was discussed in Brussels with the European Union's gas coordinating group in the presence of OAO Gazprom (GAZP.RS) representatives.
Naftogaz said the attendees agreed that Ukraine's storage of Russian gas, and the payment for it, is a mutual issue for Ukraine, Europe and Russia.
Russia has repeatedly said that crisis-hit Ukraine has difficulty paying for the storage of the gas, raising concerns of a repetition of last winter's gas row which saw European consumers' gas cut off for several weeks.