All news

Reliability of Russian gas transit via Ukraine to EU becomes more challenging — Gazprom

MOSCOW, February 13. /TASS/. Natural gas reserves in Ukraine’s underground gas storages (UGS) are already 15.1% lower than in the last year, Chief Executive Officer of Gazprom Alexei Miller told TASS.

"Gas reserves in Ukrainian underground storages continue falling. We see from operating data that just 8.97 bln cubic meters are left in them - 15.1% or 1.6 bln cubic meters lower than in the last year," Miller said. Reliability of transit to Europe continues to be more challenging, he added.

"Estimates of certain experts there are just about 1.5 bln cubic meters of active gas that can be actually withdrawn from the Ukrainian UGS are of particular concern. If this is true, then the situation with UGS in Ukraine is highly dramatic. The issue of reliable transportation of Russian gas by Ukraine for European consumers is becoming more challenging, while two more months are left before the end of the cold season," Miller said.

Ukraine is continuously more active in tapping gas from storages, Gazprom’s top manager said. "About 76 mln cubic meters of gas were daily taken in average from UGS from February 1 to 12, approximately 1.7 times more than in the like period of the last year. The average daily taking of gas from UGS was over 85 mln cubic meters during the last five days," Miller added.