MOSCOW, May 12. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s gas giant Gazprom may use capacities of Europe’s underground gas storages (UGS) for additional guarantees of stable gas supplies to European consumers in winter period, President of the Russian Gas Society Pavel Zavalny told a news conference on Monday.

“Currently, only half of the European UGSs are used in full. Therefore, their capacities allow loading additionally at lease 40-45 billion cubic meters of gas,” he said.

“In the case of insufficient for transit gas amounts in Ukraine’s UGSs, we have a possibility to load gas into UGS located in other states,” Russian Deputy Energy Minister Anatoly Yanovsky explained, adding, “We have the Yamal-Europe and Nord Stream gas pipelines. For instance the Nord Stream makes it possible to raise its throughput capacity by at least 15 billion cubic metres, which is comparable with Ukraine’s UGSs.”

In the mean time, the deputy minister pointed to the biggest risk of uninterrupted gas supplies to Bulgaria and Bosnia, which have no alternative of gas deliveries by-passing Ukraine.

In Yanovsky's words, Ukraine gives no exact data about gas amounts in its underground gas storage facilities. “According to media reports, the amounts are estimated at about nine billion cubic meters. However, our direct question to representatives of Ukraine’s energy ministry was left unanswered,” he said.