Ukraine aims for more gas stocks by winter

Ukraine is aiming to inject more gas into store before the withdrawal season starts, taking the total from above 17.5bn m³ to above 19bn m³, said state Naftogaz Ukrainy CEO Yuriy Vitrenko August 17. "This level is an essential condition for the company to secure a stable heating season, with regard to all additional risks," he said, on a visit to western Ukraine. the country's biggest storage facility is there, in the Lviv region.

“It is the government’s estimate that at the start of the next heating season, we must have gas reserves of 17bn m³ in underground storage facilities. We are now approaching the level of 18bn m³. However, in order to make sure that this heating season runs smoothly and without interruptions, we want to pump in even more gas," he said.

In an earlier comment on storage, he had said 17bn m³ was the government's target and that it had been met early, assuming that the 3.9bn m³ of gas held by foreign traders remained in Ukraine. However this winter will start with European storage relatively low and forward prices are still testing new highs. Very little LNG has been unloaded this year as most spot cargos have gone instead to Asia where prices are even higher.

Compounding the risk premium is Gazprom's own export capacity – and ability. There was a fire at a western Siberian gas processing plant earlier this month and Russia's monopoly pipeline gas exporter also has to meet ambitious storage injection demands at home. As in Europe, so Russian storage facilities earned their keep in the last long, cold winter and ended the season largely depleted.

Vitrenko said the extra gas planned for the season was only necessary to make sure that there is enough to meet power generation demand in winter. He said some plants suffer from coal shortages then.