Ukraine boosted its natural gas stocks in underground gas storage facilities (UGS) by 23.28 billion cubic meters (bcm), to 21.026 bcm from April 4 to October 13, 2019, according to JSC Ukrtransgaz.
Interfax-Ukraine’s estimates show that this volume exceeds the inventory indicator as of October 13, 2018 by 26.4%, that as of October 13, 2017 by 25.5% and of October 13, 2016 by 42.7%.
Some 594.48 million cubic meters (mcm) was pumped into the country’s storage facilities on October 1 through October 13, which was 45.7 million cubic meters (mcm) per day on the average. The average daily amount in September was 72.5 mcm, it was 77.5 mcm in August, 74.4 mcm in July, 71.9 mcm in June, and 62.9 mcm in May.
Some 44.5 mcm of natural gas was pumped into the country’s UGS facilities on October 13, 2019, alone, while gas import totaled 60.4 mcm and domestic production was 54.9 mcm.
Earlier, Chairman of Executive Board of Naftogaz Ukrainy Andriy Kobolev said that the company planned to pump additional volumes of natural gas into the Ukrainian underground storage facilities in the event that Russia’s Gazprom ceases gas transit through the country in 2020.
As was reported, during the heating season from November 6, 2018, to April 4, 2019, Ukraine’s gas stocks in the UGS facilities shrank by 8.45 bcm (from 17.195 bcm to 8.745 bcm).
Ukrtransgaz, fully owned by Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates a system of gas pipelines and 12 underground gas storages in the country. Their total capacity is 31 bcm.
