Ukrainian state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said on Friday it was increasing imports of US liquefied natural gas through Polish firm Orlen and US partners to ensure supplies for the winter amid continuing Russian strikes on the energy system.
In a statement, CEO Serhiy Koretskyi said the imports would total at least 300 million cubic metres.
"We will sign the contract with credit leverage (post-payment) and insurance instruments shortly," Koretskyi said. The agreement, signed during a transatlantic energy conference in Athens, confirms an exclusive report by Reuters that the parties were working on a deal to further tighten Europe's ties to American energy.
Polish refiner Orlen started supplying Ukraine earlier this year. Thanks to the deal signed on Friday, the volume of supplied fuel will reach nearly one billion cubic metres, the Polish energy ministry said in a statement.
The fuel is imported from the US to terminals in Poland and Lithuania and shipped across Poland to Ukraine.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Anastasiia Malenko and Marek Strzelecki; Writing by Dan Peleschuk; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Sharon Singleton)
