Ukraine increases imports of European gas
On the 23rd of July, Ukraine increased daily imports of gas from Europe to 27.957 million cubic meters compared to 22.243 million cubic meters the day before, PJSC Ukrtransgaz reported. The import from Slovakia alone accounted for 22.084 million cubic meters. According to Eustream, the request for gas imports on the 24th-25th of July also makes 22.1 million cubic meters per day. The import from Poland amounts to 3.61 million cubic meters while imports from Hungary make 2.263 million cubic meters.
Since the beginning of pumping season, gas reserves in the underground gas storage facilities have increased by 21.5% to a total of 1.816 billion cubic meters. As of July 23rd, gas reserves made 12.668 billion cubic meters. Pumped gas generates 43.57 million cubic meters per day.
Ukraine recently began a full-scale import of gas for the purpose of replenishing underground gas storage facilities. It is expected that Ukraine will have imported 40 million cubic meters of gas from Europe by the end of July.
The government’s plan is to pump about half a billion cubic meters of gas into underground gas storage facilities by the end of July, about 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas in August and about 1.9 billion cubic meters in September. Pumping will continue in October if the weather is warm enough. Ukraine already imported 19.7 million cubic meters of gas last June and 96.4 million cubic meters last May.
Earlier, the Head of NJSC Naftogaz Ukraine, Andrew Kobolev, noted that Ukraine intends to accumulate about 14 billion cubic meters of gas in the underground gas storage facilities by the start of the upcoming heating season. Kobolev also stated that gas reserves in underground storage facilities will not be as sizeable as before. Ukraine entered the past two heating seasons with about 16-17 billion cubic meters of gas.