KYIV, May 2 – Ukrainian and European traders are accumulating additional reserves of natural gas ahead of winter to prepare for any potential supply disruptions amid a looming standoff with Russia.

Andriy Kobolev, the head of Naftogaz Ukrayiny, the state energy company, said Ukraine will accumulate 20 billion cubic meters of gas, up from 17 Bcm that the country usually keeps in underground storage facilities.

"It is important to have heat in Ukrainian homes even if Gazprom is going to trigger another crisis,” Kobolev wrote in Facebook post on Thursday. “European traders are also creating additional reserves. Everyone understands that the winter is close.”

Kobolev’s comments come days after Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Beijing, painted an apocalyptic scenario for Ukraine should Naftogaz and Gazprom fail to sign a new gas transit agreement.

The current 10-year gas transit agreement is due to expire by the end of 2019 and Gazprom has so far refused to sign the new one.

The next round of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia is scheduled for later this month, and will be joined by the European Commission, which has expressed concerns about slow pace of talks.

“This is artillery before the next trilateral talks in May,” Kobolev said of Putin’s comments. “Moscow kicked off the talks on gas transit, and this round of talks was held by the Russian president from far-away in Beijing.”

Gazprom insisted on special conditions to be met by Naftogaz for successful talks, including cancelling billions of US dollars in payments the Russian company must make following a court ruling in Stockholm.

Also, Gazprom has been refusing to agree to abide by European standards in negotiating and signing the transit agreement, while Naftogaz has insisted on sticking to European rules.

"Are we going to eventually sign the gas transit agreement or not?” Putin asked. “If there is going to be no transit… there will be no gas supplies to Ukraine.”

"This is such a serious issue, and they all are fooling around there, engage in some kind of political quarrels instead of thinking about an ordinary citizen of Ukraine who is forced to pay an exorbitant price for all these political tricks," Putin said.

Kobolev said Ukraine is able to import gas from Europe at competitive prices, and said that European traders should start buying Russian gas on the Ukrainian-Russian border to ensure safe shipments of gas across Ukraine to Europe.

“This would allow to move points of sale for gas to our eastern border, in other words to offer gas shipment capacity of our gas transportation system to other traders, for example to European customers of Gazprom,” Kobolev said, adding that the Russians will try to avoiding this scenario.

Ukraine increased transit of natural gas through its gas transmission system (GTS) by 4.6% on year to 21.01 billion cubic meters in January-March, according to Ukrtransgaz. (tl/ez)