All news

Ukraine’s underground gas reserves lacking 3 bln cubic meters for passing winter season

As TASS reported earlier Ukraine needs at least 19 bln cubic meters of gas to safely pass autumn-winter season and ensure transit of Russian gas to Europe in winter

MOSCOW, October 19. /TASS/. Gas reserves in Ukraine’s underground storage facilities exceeded 16 bln cubic meters, according to the data provided by the European association of the transmission, storage and LNG terminal operators Gas Storage Europe (GSE) on Monday.

Ukraine started pumping gas in its underground storage facilities on April 11. As of April 10, the country’s underground storages had 7.609 bln cubic meters of gas left while as of October 18, they already had 16.268 bln cubic meters of gas. Thus, Ukraine has pumped 8.659 bln cubic meters of gas in its underground storage facilities since April 11.

Since October 12 when Ukraine resumed Russian gas supplies suspended on July 1, 460 mln cubic meters of gas has been pumped in the country’s underground storages.

As TASS reported earlier Ukraine needs at least 19 bln cubic meters of gas to safely pass autumn-winter season and ensure transit of Russian gas to Europe in winter. Thus, the country now lacks around 3 bln cubic meters for passing the upcoming winter season. Last year Ukraine had 16.7 bln cubic meters of gas in its underground storages at the beginning of heating season. The country started gas offtake from underground storage facilities on October 20, 2014.

Ukraine’s underground gas reserves ensure stable supplies of Russian gas in required volumes to Europe as increased gas offtake in the east is balanced out by gas from underground storage facilities in the west.