KYIV, Sept 6 – Ukraine’s underground natural gas storage facilities are currently filled to 58.7% of capacity, which is in line with average levels in Europe, but Naftogaz will continue imports to boost the stocks, the company said.

Ukraine accumulated 18.16 billion cubic meters of gas in the facilities as of Sept. 1, Naftogaz said.

"We are preparing for the heating season; we continue importing gas. According to our internal plans, gas stocks should be even larger," Naftogaz CEO Yuriy Vitrenko said.

Poland has Europe’s highest levels of natural gas storage of up to 91.1%, while Austria had the lowest with 46.4%, according to Naftogaz.

Naftogaz plans to accumulate more than 19 billion cubic meters of gas in Ukrainian UGS facilities, Naftogaz said, indicating that such a volume will be enough for a stable heating season, even with the possible additional needs of thermal power plants that are facing the problem of insufficient coal stocks in their warehouses.

According to the report, 3.3 billion cubic meters of gas belonging to foreign traders and private resident companies are stored in the Ukrainian UGS facilities in the "customs warehouse" mode.

According to acting Director General of Ukrtransgaz Serhiy Pereloma, one should not be afraid of problems associated with the possible re-export of gas belonging to nonresidents.

"I can reassure you: for four months of the injection season 2021, nonresidents re-exported 0.06 billion cubic meters. All other reserves are either sold on the Ukrainian market, or remain in the underground storage facilities," he said.

Naftogaz also drew attention to the fact that the government by order No. 586-r dated June 9, 2021 instructed Naftogaz to ensure at least 17 billion cubic meters of natural gas stocks in the country's underground storage facilities by the middle of October, at the same time, such a volume of gas was injected as of August 1.

At the same time, according to the presentation of Naftogaz, gas reserves as of September 1, 2021 almost reached their level in the same period in 2019 (59% or 18.25 billion cubic meters), but were significantly lower than the level of 2020 – 82.8% or 25.63 billion cubic meters. (tl/ez)