Natural gas supplies to Ukraine grew 11% year-on-year in January-November 2020 to 15.6 billion cubic meters (bcm).
Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) said 10.2 bcm of gas were received from Slovakia, up 12% year-on-year, 3.9 bcm from Hungary, up 10%, and 1.6 bcm, from Poland, up 12%.
Volumes of 3.1 bcm, 2.9 bcm and 1.1 bcm were imported from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland, respectively as virtual reverse flow or backhaul, which became available from the beginning of 2020.
According to GTSOU, 10.1 bcm of the gas imported since the beginning of the year were sent to underground gas storage facilities for storage in the customs warehouse mode, of which 6.1 bcm in the shorthaul mode with a preferential tariff for certain points, and 4 bcm in the border-customs warehouse mode. Active customs warehouse gas withdrawals and transportation to the EU began in November.
In general, 82 traders, 45 of them Ukrainian and 30 foreign, ordered gas transportation from the EU to Ukraine in January-November, and more than 50 customers used the shorthaul and customs warehouse services.
The metallurgical enterprises of Ukraine in January-October this year increased consumption of natural gas by 1% compared to the same period last year, to 1.55 billion cubic meters.
According to the information of the Ukrmetalurgprom association, electricity consumption by metallurgical enterprises during this period amounted to about 9.12 billion kWh (96% compared to January-October 2019).
As reported, Ukrainian metallurgical enterprises in 2019 reduced natural gas consumption by 2% compared to 2018, to 1.8 billion cubic meters. Electricity consumption
The transit of natural gas from the Russian Federation through Ukraine in January-September 2020 decreased by 38.6% (by 28.3 billion cubic meters) compared to the same period last year – up to 45 billion cubic meters, head of the Operator of the Gas Transmission System of Ukraine (GTSOU) Serhiy Makohon said on his Facebook page.
According to him, the forecast for transit from Russia through the Ukrainian gas transportation system by the end of the year is 55-56 billion cubic meters.
The association Gas Traders of Ukraine, uniting over 30 energy traders, has initiated the launch of a new platform for electronic exchange trading in energy on the Ukrainian Hub commodity exchange, although recently the Ukrainian Energy Exchange has been actively increasing trading volumes.
“At the Ukrainian Hub commodity exchange it is planned to hold tenders for the natural gas, liquefied gas and oil products,” the association said in a release on Tuesday.
According to the public register, Ukrainian Hub commodity exchange LLC was created with a charter capital of UAH 10,000 at the end of August 2020. Its founders on a parity basis were Central Gas and Oil Company LLC (Kyiv) belonged to Roman Storozhev and Ver-Tas LLC (Karlivka, Poltava region) belonged to director Oleksandr Mariukhnich, and the head of the company is Maryna Mariukhnich.
In 2002-2004, Storozhev was Director General of Ukrzakorodonggeologia, then until 2013 he was President of the Association of Subsoil Users of Ukraine, in 2013 he became Deputy Head of the NJSC Nadra Ukrainy, and from the end of that year until May 2014 – he was Head of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine.
Mariukhnich is Director of the Agrarian Exchange, which currently, according to its website, regularly holds auctions for the sale of the property of Nadra Ukrainy.
JSC Ukrgazvydobuvannia, part of the Naftogaz Exploration and Production division, reduced the production of marketable gas by 0.5% (by 47.8 million cubic meters) in January-September 2020, as compared to the same period last year, to 10.135 billion cubic meters.
Naftogaz noted that it will be more difficult to maintain production at last year’s level in the fourth quarter due to the cumulative effect of negative factors associated with the four months’ lack of approval of the permits required to start drilling, as well as low prices for energy with a consequent reducing of investment in production activities, and a delay of the delivery of equipment and materials due to quarantine restrictions.
In general, it was possible to maintain production volumes over the nine months due to the modernization and construction of ground infrastructure facilities, the implementation of the development program and additional exploration of existing fields, as well as work on new areas.
So, since the beginning of 2020, the divisions of Naftogaz Group have completed the drilling of 27 wells, performed 210 workovers of wells, 75 hydraulic fracturing operations, and 551 coiled tubing operations, completed the reconstruction of four gas treatment units, the construction of four gas pipelines and 66.8 km of plumes.
Natural gas reserves in underground storage facilities (UGS) of Ukraine as of October 17, 2020 reached 28.434 billion cubic meters, or 91.9% of their total design capacity, according to operational data of JSC Ukrtransgaz.
According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, on October 1 through October 17, the storage facilities were filled by 379.6 million cubic meters, and if during October 1 – October 16, the daily injection ranged from 19.6 million cubic meters to 28.2 million cubic meters, then on October 17, it decreased to 10.8 million cubic meters.
Since the end of the season for withdrawing gas from storage facilities on March 26 until October 17, 2020, reserves in Ukrainian UGS facilities have increased by 80.1%, or 12.649 billion cubic meters.
As reported, in the previous heating season, which lasted from November 1, 2019 to March 26, 2020, gas reserves in the country’s underground storage facilities decreased by 6 billion cubic meters (from 21.784 billion cubic meters to 15.784 billion cubic meters).
The system of 12 underground storage facilities of Ukrtransgaz, which fully belongs to NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, has a total design capacity of 31 billion cubic meters.
