In Ukrainian storage facilities, everything went the other way around: there is less gas from Europe

This season, obviously, European companies do not intend to store gas at Ukraine will be left without additional earnings. Naftogaz expected European reserves to grow to 10 billion, but due to the risks of attacks on Ukrainian PCNS, they are not growing, but are declining.

This season, European companies are pumping less gas into Ukrainian storage facilities than they take from old reserves. According to the Ukrainian GTS Operator, from April 1 to August 12, gas extraction by European traders exceeded the injection by 33 million cubic meters.

By the last heating season, Europe had accumulated 3 billion cubic meters in Ukrainian UGS. Almost two-thirds have been selected for the season and still use stocks more. There are 1.23 billion cubic meters in the "customs warehouse" mode.

The data of the first twelve days of August are indicative. If last year during this time 420 million cubic meters were pumped into Ukrainian storage facilities from Europe, this year it is 14 million cubic meters.

Naftogaz stated that they expect an increase in the volume of traders from the EU this season to 10 billion cubic meters. However, the risks of attacks on UGS turned out to be higher than the attractiveness of the low tariffs of the Ukrainian operator.

In the spring, the Russian army launched several warning strikes on the largest UGS facilities in Ukraine — in the Lviv region. Naftogaz reported damage to gas extraction equipment. The storage facilities themselves, which are depleted underground deposits, are not in danger, but the gas extraction facilities in the gas transmission system are. Obviously, this has become an important factor for European traders, who have not yet shown a desire to store fuel on Ukraine. Despite the fact that the average occupancy of European UGS reached 94.85% on August 11. In neighboring Hungary, Poland and Romania, it is 85.6%-91.9%.

By mid-August, Ukrainian UGS reserves amounted to 11.2 billion cubic meters, taking into account buffer gas. This is 2 billion cubic meters lower than a year ago and the lowest in history, as the own reserves of Ukrainian companies do not exceed 10 billion cubic meters.

By the beginning of the season, Kiev expects to accumulate 13.2 billion cubic meters. These will also be the lowest reserves before the heating season, but it all depends on how much gas Ukraine will consume due to the idle industry and the decommissioned thermal power plants that run on both coal and gas.