Naftogaz, the Ukrainian state-owned gas company, has imported gas and its reserves are expected to last through the heating season, according to Roman Chumak, the head of the Naftogaz group, as cited in the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine.
The news magazine notes that the former head of the energy company, Alexei Chernyshev, had assured in the summer that the country would only make it through the coming heating season at the cost of its own production, with reserves from the Cherkasy, Poltava and Lviv regions.
According to the newspaper, 100 million cubic meters of gas have been imported so far for five million euros. Meanwhile, the former acting energy minister, Olga Burlyuba, stated that a billion cubic meters of gas should be imported to ensure a “confident” season.
As of January 24, the gas reserves in Ukraine’s underground storage facilities stood at a total of 8.5 billion cubic meters, including 4.7 billion cubic meters of “buffer gas” (needed to maintain pressure in the storage facilities), according to Burlyuba. This represents a 24% decline from the previous year.
Last year, Ukraine consumed 19.7 billion cubic meters of gas, importing 722.7 million cubic meters, while producing 18.2 billion cubic meters of gas, according to Burlyuba.
On January 29, the head of the Ukrainian gas transmission network, Sergei Makogon, warned that it would be difficult to meet the increased demand in the event of a cold spell, relying solely on gas from underground storage facilities. According to him, the average consumption in Ukraine currently stands at 110 million cubic meters of gas, of which 52 million cubic meters are met through production and the rest through underground storage facilities and imports. However, if consumption increases to 140-150 million cubic meters in the cold season, gas from the storage facilities will be in short supply and Ukraine will have to rely on imports.
Following the disruption of the Russian gas transit through Ukrainian territory, Transnistria, a neighboring country of Ukraine, experienced power and heating outages. The Slovak Republic is also seeking the resumption of the transit due to the rise in gas prices.
According to the Ukrainian news and analysis website Strana, the suspension of the transit in Ukraine led to an increase in gas transportation tariffs for domestic consumers to offset the lost transit revenue. Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Kiev receives an annual 700-800 million US dollars in transit revenue.