Ukraine's national energy company Naftogaz Ukrayiny paid about $865 million to Russian gas giant Gazprom for natural gas imported in March, the company said in a statement Monday.
"Naftogaz every month in full and on time fulfills commitments to Gazprom on payment for the supplied natural gas," Naftogaz said in the statement.
Naftogaz made the payment on Friday, April 6, as it needs to make monthly payments to Gazprom within the first week of each following month to comply with the agreement both parties signed in January 2009.
A failure to pay on time for gas imports may provoke Gazprom to suspend gas supplies to Ukraine that may in turn affect other countries in Europe.
Ukraine is buying Russian gas at about $416/1,000 cu m in the first quarter of 2012, compared with $401/1,000 cu m in Q4 2011.
Naftogaz paid about $1.3 billion to Gazprom in March for gas imported in February, compared with $808 million paid in February for gas imported in January.
Ukraine plans to import 27 billion cu m of gas from Russia in 2012, down from about 40 billion cu m imported in 2011, according to Naftogaz.