Gas Transport System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) has accepted a request from Gazprom for Wednesday to transport 53.9 million cubic meters of gas through the country, up from 48.8 mcm on Tuesday, data from GTSOU show.
The capacity was requested only through one of two entry points into Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System, the Sudzha metering station. A request was not being accepted through the Sokhranivka metering station.
“Gazprom is feeding Russian gas for transit through Ukraine’s territory in the amount confirmed by the Ukrainian side through the Sudzha gas metering station – 51.6 mcm for May 18. The request for the Sokhranivka gas metering station was declined,” Gazprom spokesman Sergei Kupriyanov told reporters.
GTSOU declared a force majeure in regard to accepting gas for transit through Sokhranivka, citing the fact that it cannot control the Novopskov compressor station.
Market
As prices decrease on the market, Europe’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports are beginning to fall somewhat in May from the record high of April, when the European gas transport system took in 10.651 billion cubic meters or 355 mcm per day from LNG terminals. As of the last reporting date, May 16, use of regasification capacity at European terminals was at 63%, which is far from the peak of 77% at the end of April.
The region is continuing to inject gas into underground gas storage (UGS) facilities, reserves in which now stand at 40.52%, up by 0.45 percentage points from a day earlier, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe show. Reserves in Europe’s UGS currently lag 3.5 percentage points behind the five-year average.
Injection into UGS in April was slowed by high prices for imported gas, but in May imports from Russia increased and the pace increased. In the first 16 days of May, the pace of gas injection into UGS exceeded the five-year average by 48%, compared to just 12% in April.
Europe imposed tight regulation of the use of UGS this year. Reserves are supposed to be at least 80% of UGS capacity by the start of the offtake season in 2022 and subsequently increase to 90%. However, European Union officials continue to oppose Russia’s new conditions for paying for gas. This could lead to the suspension of supplies to other countries as has already happened with Poland and Bulgaria, and makes it harder to fulfil this directive.
Wind power contributed almost 17% of electricity generation across the European Union in the week from May 9 to 15. The figure dropped to 12% in the first two days of the new week, data from WindEurope show.
