FACTBOX-Ukrainian state energy giant Naftogaz

Sept 30 (Reuters) - Ukraine's Naftogaz, seen as close to default on a $500 million Eurobond, will pay out its regular coupon, a minister said on Wednesday, which may smooth the way for a planned restructuring of its foreign debts. [ID:nLU81908]

Many investors see Naftogaz, often at the centre of gas supply rows between Ukraine and Russia, as a reflection of the country's creditworthiness as its squabbling political elite try to fight a deep economic crisis.

The following is an X-ray of the company.

FINANCES

* Created in 1998, Naftogaz is the exclusive importer of Russian gas into Ukraine, which covers over 60 percent of the country's consumption of gas. Naftogaz sells the imported gas onto utilities -- supplying households -- and industry.

* In recent years Naftogaz has been forced into selling the gas at far cheaper prices to most of its clients than it buys it at, though it does make a profit on industry sales.

* This is because the price for Russian gas has leapt to about $230 per 1,000 cubic metres this year from $50 in 2005. Household and utility gas prices have remained heavily subsidised in the meantime.

* Its 2008 accounts, issued earlier this month, showed a loss of 2 billion hryvnias (about $250 million) compared to a loss of 66 million hryvnias the previous year.

* Some 8.7 billion hryvnias, or well over $1 billion, were effectively lost through the hryvnia currency's sharp depreciation versus the dollar in the last four months of last year.

* Naftogaz itself is owed a huge amount of debt -- 3 billion hryvnias incurred just in the past year -- which also hurts its finances.

* It is expected to import 32-33 billion cubic metres of gas -- against a contracted amount of 40 this year, far lower than last year's 49 billion cubic metres of gas, at a total cost of $8.6 billion.

RUSSIA

* Apart from supplying Ukraine, Russia sends over 120 billion cubic metres of gas to Europe via Ukraine, meeting about 20 percent of the European Union's gas needs.

* Naftogaz was at the centre of January's "gas war" with Russia over bills and future gas prices which led to supply cuts to hundreds of thousands of Europeans in the dead of winter.

* This was resolved later in January after Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko signed a deal with Moscow setting out supply volumes and gas price calculations for the next 10 years.

* The deal eliminated RosUkrEnergo, the intermediary company that has supplied Russian gas to Ukraine, from the gas trade, leaving Naftogaz as exclusive importer of Russian gas.

* Tymoshenko had long demanded the removal of RosUkrEnergo from supply schemes, accusing it of improper dealing. The company was half-owned by Russian gas giant Gazprom and businesman Dmytro Firtash.

DOMESTIC ROWS

* President Viktor Yushchenko, bitter rival of Tymoshenko, has blamed her repeatedly for driving Naftogaz to the verge of bankruptcy by her policies, including the January deal.

* Tymoshenko says Naftogaz's finances are stable thanks to government support and guarantees. The January deal is the best among Russia's former Soviet neighbours, she says.

* EU governments were shocked that its people were directly affected by the gas row between Ukraine and Russia in January and set about trying to help Naftogaz financially.

* The EU's Commission brokered a deal on July 31 between Kiev and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the World Bank in which a total of $1.7 billion could be lent to Ukraine.

* Apart from $300 million going directly to help with gas purchases, however, the rest of the money would go to help modernise the country's Soviet-era gas transit infrastructure. (Compiled by Sabina Zawadzki and Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Toby Chopra)