MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. Norway will allocate almost $100 million to Ukraine to purchase natural gas, CEO of Naftogaz, Sergey Koretsky announced.

"The Norwegian government is providing 1 billion Norwegian kroner ($98.3 million) for gas imports to meet the needs of the 2025-2026 heating season," he wrote on his Telegram channel.

He noted that the Norwegian loan will help Ukrainians survive the winter cold and strengthen the country's energy security.

On August 13, Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced the signing of an agreement between Naftogaz and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) on a 500 mln euros loan for the purchase of gas under EU guarantees without a Ukrainian state guarantee.

A week earlier, the Ukrainian consulting company EXPRO reported that gas reserves in Ukraine's underground storage facilities remain at an all-rime low over the past 12 years. They are 32.3% full, which is about 10 billion cubic meters.

The country’s Energy Ministry estimates that by November 1, 13.2 billion cubic meters must be in storage so that the heating season can pass smoothly. According to EXPRO, domestic production will not cover the required volume of stocks and "Ukraine needs to import about 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas during August - October."

Analysts from the Ukrainian specialized publication Ukrrudprom believe that one of the problems of low gas import figures is the critical shortage of funds at Naftogaz, which recently took out loans from Ukrgasbank and Privatbank in the amount of 9.4 billion hryvnias (about $225 million), this amount is enough to purchase only 400 million cubic meters of gas.

Meanwhile, Naftogaz continues to purchase mainly Russian gas from Slovakia and Hungary with a large mark-up, the publication concludes.

The problem of gas shortage in Ukraine arose after the transit of Russian gas to Europe through the country's gas transportation system was completely stopped on January 1 due to Kiev's refusal to extend the agreement with Gazprom. Since the beginning of July, Ukraine has begun importing gas for the first time via the Trans-Balkan Corridor - a system of gas pipelines from liquefied gas terminals in Greece through Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova to the border with Ukraine in the Odessa region.