Gas reserves in Ukraine's underground storage facilities stand at 5.7 billion cubic meters, down 31% from the respective period of last year, Ukrainian media said, citing a statement by former Energy Minister Olga Buslavets on a social network.
In her words, this includes 4.1 billion cubic meters of gas in long-storage, including amounts kept on uncontrolled territories, 0.6 billion cubic meters of long-stage active gas transferred to the buffer gas category, and 0.05 billion cubic meters of gas owned by non-residents
"According to the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, net gas imports to Ukraine (excluding short-haul) decreased by 22% week-on-week to 45 million cubic meters," Buslavets said.
Daily gas consumption in Ukraine increased to 80-90 million cubic meters per day due to a temporary drop in temperatures this week, which required withdrawal from underground gas storage facilities of up to 42 million cubic meters per day and imports of up to 7 million cubic meters per day.
At the same time, gas reserves in underground gas storage facilities in Europe amount to 36.9 billion cubic meters with a filling level of 34%. "This is 24% lower than the average for the past five years and 43% lower than last year's level, or 27.0 billion cubic meter," Buslavets said.
Spot gas prices at TTF (a virtual trading point in the Netherlands, title transfer facility) have fluctuated in the range of 40.5-42.5 euros per MWh over the past week, due to temperature fluctuations in Northwestern Europe, the market's reaction to the Ukraine-U.S. negotiations on ending the crisis, and a decrease in net long positions by speculative investment funds.
As reported with reference to head of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine Dmitry Lippa, Ukraine may import at least 4 billion cubic meters of gas from April to October 2025. At the same time, liquefied natural gas will account for up to half of the total import volume through Europe, and as much of this gas as possible can come from the United States.
In turn, Buslavets said last week, in today's prices, such a volume of imports could cost more than $2 billion, which the Naftogaz group does not have now after the emergency import of 0.6 billion cubic meters in February-March and the exhaustion of credit funds.
In her opinion, additional solutions must now be found both in terms of financing by Western partners (IMF, EU support and grants from individual countries) and in terms of a possible transformation of the unbalanced segments of the preferential supply system (deficit) and the commercial segment (surplus). (March 24, 2025, Source: https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/110552/)
UKRAINE - Natural Gas - Storage