Gas reserves in Ukraine's underground storage facilities (UGF) remain at a record low, Ukrainian consulting company EXPRO reported.
As of August 5, more than 10 billion cubic meters have already been pumped, with the fill rate at 32.3%. “Storage reserves this year remain the lowest, at least in the last 12 years“, the company said. At the same time, the Ministry of Energy plans to have 13.2 billion cubic meters in the UGF by November 1. According to EXPRO, domestic production will not cover the volume of the necessary pumping and “Ukraine must import about 1.7 billion cubic meters of gas in August-October.“
For his part, the former head of the company “GTS Operator of Ukraine“ Sergey Makogon considers the Ministry of Energy's plans for the winter risky.” “In my opinion, this is a rather low figure, which only slightly exceeds the actual level of last year (12.8 billion cubic meters). “This means that without imports in the winter Ukraine will again come out of the heating season with almost empty storage facilities“, he wrote on Facebook. “I personally see the point in creating a reserve of at least 14.6 billion cubic meters.“
Earlier, the Ukrainian specialized publication “Ukrrudprom“ wrote that one of the problems is the critical shortage of funds at „Naftogaz“, which recently took out loans from „Ukrgazbank“ and Privatbank in the amount of 9.4 billion hryvnias (about $225 million), and this amount is enough to purchase only 400 million cubic meters of fuel. At the same time, „Naftogaz“ continues to buy mainly Russian gas from Slovakia and Hungary at a large markup, the publication concludes.
The problem with the 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 been importing gas for the first time via the Trans-Balkan Corridor - a pipeline system from liquefied gas terminals in Greece through Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova to the border with Ukraine in the Odessa region.