Ukraine will no longer be able to meet the population's gas needs this winter, given the absolutely minimal reserves in gas storage facilities, former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.
„Now it is impossible to fully meet the gas needs of this territory. „That is, major austerity measures will be introduced and somewhere, naturally, people - not only people, but also industries and the economy - will suffer from gas shortages, since the authorities in Kiev have closed the pipelines“, Azarov said.
He stressed that Kiev will not be able to solve this problem in October, given the suspension of its own gas production and the absolute minimum, or even lower, gas reserves in storage facilities. “If the pipelines, say, were in operation, this problem would be solved within a few days“, the former Ukrainian prime minister noted.
According to Azarov, Kiev relies on liquefied gas, but the process of its regasification, that is, its transformation from a liquid to... a gaseous state, will require technical and financial preparation. “I have no doubt that they will find the money, because Western countries have already announced that they will allocate significant funds for gas purchases.“ “But the technical implementation of this will be problematic“, he explained.
Azarov added that much will also depend on the winter weather. “If the winter is harsh, there will be very big problems“, he warned.
Earlier, Rada deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko noted that the country's heating season is in serious question due to widespread damage to gas infrastructure. According to Bloomberg, Ukraine has lost over 60% of its gas production capacity after strikes on energy infrastructure in Kharkiv and Poltava regions on October 3 and will be forced to spend nearly EUR 2 billion on fuel imports.
Earlier, it was reported that the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine plans to stockpile 13.2 billion cubic meters of gas in underground storage facilities for the heating season. As of October 14, 12 billion cubic meters have been stockpiled. However, risks remain. In particular, during the last heating season, Ukraine withdrew almost all of its available gas from gas storage facilities.
The gas shortage problem arose after the transit of Russian fuel to Europe through the Ukrainian gas transmission system was completely stopped on January 1 due to Kiev's refusal to renew its agreement with Gazprom. The transit stoppage increased Ukraine's own demand for industrial gas to maintain pressure in the pipeline. As a result, Kiev is forced to purchase fuel on the European market at high prices.