Minister Reportedly Said Ukraine Will Fail Storage Targets Despite EBRD Funds

Ukraine’s Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Volodymyr Demchyshyn reportedly said the country will not be able to store 19 billion cubic meters of gas by the end of the year, adding that Gazprom could take part in a tender to supply natural gas to Ukraine from Europe, KyivPost and TASS wrote. 

According to data published by GIE, Ukraine stored 16.9 bcm of gas in its facilities.

Last week, Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolyev and the EBRD Managing Director for Energy and Natural Resources Riccardo Puliti signed a deal for a US$ 300 million loan meant to enable Ukraine to buy 1 bcm of gas.

UKRAINE SEEKS HELP FROM THE BALTICS 

The news comes at a moment when Ukrainian officials are holding talks with Latvian counterparts, calling on European partners to keep international sanctions against Russia. 

 ‘At the meeting with President of Latvia Raimonds Vējonis, President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko noted that Russia was virtually disrupting the fulfillment of the Minsk agreements and emphasized the necessity of further international sanctions in case of the absence of progress’ the Office of the President of Ukraine wrote on Tuesday.

LEGAL WRANGLING CONTINUES

A few hours before, an EU court said member states had no legal grounds to impose an asset freeze on a Ukrainian former regime member 

‘The inclusion of Mr Portnov’s name on the list does not satisfy the criteria for designating persons whose funds are to be frozen’ the EU Court wrote on Monday, referring to Andriy Portnov, a former adviser to ousted Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich.