KIEV, Aug. 27 – Ukraine asked Russia's Gazprom for a $2 billion loan to buy an extra amount of natural gas during the next two months for winter storage, a newspaper reported, citing a source.

The money would buy 5 billion cubic meters of gas that would be stored in underground gas storage facilities aimed at preventing gas supply disruptions between Russia and Europe.

“We will buy this gas, but under condition that Gazprom or Gazprombank give us an interest-free loan and extend earlier-issued credits,” Kommersant-Ukrayina quoted a source at the Energy and Coal Industry Ministry as saying.

Ukraine planned to store up to 14 billion cubic meters of gas in its storage facilities by October 15 when the high-demand season begins. Gazprom, however, said that Ukraine should store at least 19 billion cu m for smooth winter supplies.

Ukraine owns massive underground gas storage facilities near the border with the EU that can hold 32 billion cubic meters of gas. This gas is usually used during the winter to prevent supply disruptions between Russia and Europe.

Gazprom already rejected Ukraine’s earlier proposal that called for the Russian company to supply and store its own gas in the Ukrainian storage facilities to be used during the winter.

Gazprom earlier in July decided to halt prepayment of natural gas transit fees to Naftogaz Ukrayiny, the national energy company, until at least 2015, which my pose a risk of modest supply disruptions, according to Fitch Ratings.

Since the beginning of 2012, Gazprom has made $3.5 billion of transit fee prepayments to Naftogaz, which the Ukrainian company used to finance purchases of Russian gas, including that for storage. But Gazprom said in July that the latest $1 billion payment will cover the period until the start of 2015.

"Gazprom's prepayments are critical for Naftogaz, which continues to rely on gas transit revenues and support from the Ukrainian government to offset losses on domestic gas sales due to low government-set tariffs,” Fitch reported.

"The volume required only represents around 2% of European annual gas consumption and the dispute is therefore unlikely to have a significant impact on the region as a whole,” Fitch said. “But it could still result in some disruption in countries that are reliant on Russian gas via Ukraine, including Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey." (tl/ez)