Ukraine from April 4 through May 25, 2019 increased natural gas stocks in its underground storage facilities by 25.7% or 2.25 billion cubic meters (bcm), to 10.996 bcm, according to recent update from JSC Ukrtransgaz.
According to the calculations of the Interfax-Ukraine agency, the figure is 19% more than stocks on May 25, 2018 and 13.8% more than on May 25, 2017.
On May 25, 2019, 77.14 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas was pumped into the underground storage facilities and 52.3 mcm of gas was imported with domestic production of 57.7 mcm.
Earlier Naftogaz CEO Andriy Kobolev said that national joint-stock company Naftogaz Ukrainy is mulling a possibility of pumping an additional volume of gas to the underground gas storage facilities of Ukraine if Russia’s Gazprom stops gas transit across the country after 2019. Ukraine plans to have around 20 bcm of gas in stocksat the beginning of the next heating season.
During the heating season started on November 7, 2018 and lasted until April 4, 2019 some 8.45 bcm of gas was pumped from the underground gas storage facilities. The stocks fell from 17.195 bcm to 8.745 bcm.
Ukrtransgaz, a wholly owned subsidiary of Naftogaz Ukrainy, operates Ukraine’s gas transmission system and 12 underground gas storage facilities with 31 bcm of capacity.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) could organize a syndicated loan of EUR 80 million for state-owned Ukreximbank (Kyiv) to support renewable energy and energy efficiency private investments in Ukraine.
According to a posting on the bank’s website, EBRD will provide EUR 40 million from own account.
The provision of the loan is pending the approval of the EBRD Board on June 19, 2019.
Ukreximbank, a wholly owned state bank, was established in 1992. It ranked third among 77 banks in Ukraine in terms of total assets worth UAH 232.064 billion as of January 1, 2019, according to the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
PrJSC Kyivoblenergo has stated DTEK had gained control over the company, having received relevant information from the Agency for the Development of the Ukrainian Stock Market Infrastructure.
In addition, according to reports on the website of the regional energy company, the supervisory board of the company at a meeting on May 24 fired the board headed by Volodymyr Cherniavsky.
New members of the board have not been elected, but it is absent DTEK-controlled power grid companies, while the director general is in charge of operative management.