Ukraine no longer has time to pump in the volumes of gas needed for the winter
Today, after a break of more than three months, Ukraine will resume purchases of Russian gas, money for which was allocated by the World Bank under guarantees from the European Investment Bank, Kommersant reports.
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The publication recalls that Ukraine has stopped purchasing gas from Gazprom since July, limiting itself to reverse supplies from the EU. It was assumed that supplies would resume on October 1, so that Naftogaz would have time to pump an additional two billion cubic meters of gas into underground storage facilities (UGS), which was provided for by the tripartite agreement.
“However, Naftogaz did not transfer the advance payment for almost two weeks and now will not have time to pump the required volume,” the newspaper emphasizes. – The maximum daily level of supplies from Russia is 114 million cubic meters under the contract, and even if they continue at this level, Naftogaz will only be able to select 2 billion cubic meters by the end of the month. Meanwhile, Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities may switch to withdrawal mode as early as this week due to the start of the heating season: withdrawal from the Olishivske underground gas storage facility in the Chernihiv region has begun, and injection into other storage facilities, as of October 10, has fallen by an order of magnitude compared to the beginning of the month. up to a symbolic 3 million cubic meters per day.”
At the same time, Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy Viktor Glamazdin said on Saturday that the authorities consider the reserves in underground gas storage facilities to be 17 billion cubic meters (now they are 15,8 billion), although the European Commission has always officially insisted that underground gas storage facilities be filled to 19 billion cubic meters.
“Taking into account the decrease in gas consumption in Ukraine, as well as due to the high throughput capacity of the Ukrainian gas transmission system, the country can go through the winter even with small reserves in underground gas storage facilities, provided that Naftogaz stably purchases gas from Russia in the current regime,” Kommersant summarizes " – But so far Kyiv does not have money for such purchases, except for WB funds (they will be enough for 2,2 billion cubic meters). There is no agreement on the purchase price for the first quarter of 2016. In such a situation, Naftogaz may begin a significant increase in gas from underground gas storage facilities as early as November, and reserves in storage facilities by January-February will be insufficient to compensate for a possible sharp cooling.”
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