Poland takes European gas from Ukrainian storage facilities

Norway stopped a significant part of gas production for annual preventive maintenance, and Poland was left without supplies via the Baltic Gas Pipeline. Polish companies compensate for most of the losses from European gas reserves by Ukraine or through transit through the country.

In September in Poland does not have enough gas, and the main source of compensation volumes were the reserves of European traders on Ukraine. Warsaw and Kiev have repeatedly announced plans to cooperate on gas supplies through Poland to Ukraine, however, so far because of Poland, stocks in Ukrainian storage facilities are declining.

Preventive maintenance at oil and gas production facilities has started in Norway since August 29, and exports from the country have almost halved. According to the operator Gassco, deliveries to the Baltic Gas Pipeline from the North Sea through Denmark to Poland was stopped completely. This is confirmed by ENTSOG data on the gas outlet point in the Baltic Gas Pipeline from Denmark.

As a result, Poland has lost stable supplies of 23.1 million cubic meters per day and is forced to take fuel from other sources. The largest was Ukraine, where European traders keep stocks.

According to the "Ukrainian GTS Operator", since August 30, Poland has received 117 million cubic meters of gas stored there in the "customs warehouse" mode from Ukrainian storage facilities, and together with the fact that it passed through Ukraine, 170 million cubic meters.

This is the largest European gas extraction at Ukraine for Poland. For example, in August it amounted to less than 5 million cubic meters.

Polish companies have enough alternative options for obtaining gas. However, deliveries from the LNG terminal in They are not carried out in the Baltic States, they have not changed from the terminal in Svinoujscie. And imports from Germany increased by 42 million cubic meters in 18 days. Poland also took less than 25 million cubic meters from storage facilities.

The Norwegian operator Gassco reports that preventive maintenance at the Karsto processing facilities, through which Poland receives gas, will last until September 20. Until that time, all capacities for 97 million cubic meters per day are missing.

The purchase of European gas from Ukrainian storage facilities is a small, but a nuisance for Ukraine. Traders' stocks continue to decline, despite Naftogaz's plans to increase them to 10 billion cubic meters. Due to the risks of Russian retaliatory strikes on UGS facilities, the volumes of gas of European companies have not only not increased this injection season, but decreased by 22 million cubic meters. Of the 3 billion cubic meters of reserves made in 2023, 1.25 billion cubic meters remained.

Despite the fact that the total reserves in Ukrainian UGS amounted to 12 billion cubic meters on September 15, and Naftogaz does not have time to fulfill the government plan of 13.5 billion cubic meters for the heating season, which traditionally begins during October.

As EADaily reported, in this situation, the Ukrainian national company itself will play the European trader. Naftogaz will purchase 600 million cubic meters with EBRD loans. However, as stated in the national company, this will not be considered an import, since the volumes will be placed in Ukrainian warehouses in the "customs warehouse" mode and will be used only in emergency situations. This allows the head of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Alexei Chernyshev, to declare that Ukraine will pass the season only on domestic gas production.