Gas dilemma: Which grandmothers, Austrian or Ukrainian, will be saved first?
If severe frosts hit again in February, the gas reserves in Ukrainian storage facilities may not be enough to meet consumption peaks.
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Director of the Institute of Energy Research Dmitry Marunich spoke about this at a press conference in Kyiv.
“In addition to the problem of depleting gas in Ukrainian storage facilities, there is also the problem of meeting consumption peaks at the end of February - beginning of March. And the question may be different: will there be enough at the end of February, if a frost of 15 degrees hits, to cover the daily peaks and not disrupt gas transit? And there is already unofficial information that the Cabinet of Ministers is calling for gas savings. Now the daily capacity of storage facilities has dropped to 118 million cubic meters, although they were designed for 160 - 180 cubic meters. Now it is no longer possible to get that much, since the pressure is low, and from February it will be even lower. So there are significant risks of covering daily peaks,” the expert warned.
“Another unpleasant story follows from this: who will be saved then, Austrian or Ukrainian grandmothers? It seems to me, given our relations with European friends and the existence of the Stockholm arbitration process, Austrian grandmothers will be saved, perhaps to the detriment of ours, primarily industrial enterprises,” Marunich said.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.