The International Finance Corporation (IFC) from the World Bank group would provide a trade finance credit of up to $200m to Ukraine’s national oil and gas company Naftogaz for it to acquire natural gas from France’s Engie, Ukraine News Agency Interfax reported.

The credit will be provided under a framework contract signed by Naftogaz and Engie for a period of up to a year and it will be Engie that will receive the loan, informed the 4-traders website.

According to earlier reports, Britain’s Noble Clean Fuels Ltd and France’s Engie SA won first three tenders to supply gas to Naftogaz funded by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in mid December, Interfax informed.

In November, Kiev had instructed Naftogaz to halt all future purchases of Russian gas as the pricing offered by the European partners was much lower compared with Moscow’s offers, according to Sputnik News.