Last week, trading in August 2025, September 2025 and subsequent months continued. In total, 4 companies formed positions for the purchase and sale of natural gas: LTC Electrum, GTS Operator of Ukraine, D.Trading, and Ukrzaliznytsia.
The starting prices of resources in the mid- and long-term market section varied widely. As a result, as of Friday, the average starting price of September resources in the GTS was 3.33% higher than on Monday. Last week, only buy positions were sold. In total, 20,700.00 thousand cubic meters of natural gas were sold, 17700 of which were purchased by the GTS Operator of Ukraine. Last week’s bidders formed the following quotation prices:
In the sections “Cross-border, customs warehouse” and “Imported natural gas”, the initiators formed starting positions, but no selling prices were formed in these sections last week.
On the short-term natural gas market of the UEEX , participants placed bids on the intraday market. The deals were concluded for delivery to the Ukrainian gas transmission system. The weighted average price of the DAM on Friday, August 15, amounted to UAH 20200 excluding VAT.
European market
Gas prices declined last week. TTF futures dropped to around 32 euros/MWh. Gas stocks continue to grow, and geopolitical risks did not create a new shock in the short term. Steady gas supplies from Norway and high LNG imports offset some of the problems.
At the same time, the energy landscape was shaken by several strategic moves: Centrica and ECP (Energy Capital Partners) bought the Isle of Grain LNG terminal, Europe’s largest, for about €1.5 billion, sending a clear signal to the market about long-term dependence on imported gas, even as demand for its use in the power sector fell. In addition, Centrica has signed an agreement with the US-based Devon Energy to supply the equivalent of five LNG cargoes annually for a decade, another foundation that lays the groundwork for Europe’s energy security.
Month-ahead contracts at all analyzed hubs showed a different trend relative to spot prices, with an average increase of 1.64%. Quarter-ahead prices were higher than spot prices by an average of 4.68%. The season-ahead prices with an average value of 35.50 EUR/MWh tended to increase compared to the spot prices by an average of 5.77%.
September futures for LNG in Asia, the JKM Platts Future index, settled on August 14 at $426.38 per thousand cubic meters. US dollars per thousand cubic meters. The futures for LNG delivered to Northwest Europe (LNG North West Europe Marker) closed at $393.80 per mcm. US $/thousand cubic meters.
European LNG terminals operated on August 13 with an average capacity of 79.81%.
LNG stocks in the EU as of August 13, 2025 amounted to 4.336 million cubic meters, according to the Aggregated LNG Storage Inventors.
The storage level of the largest LNG exporter, the United States, according to the latest EIA data as of August 8, 2025, was 3.186 billion cubic feet, which is 6.6% higher than the average for the last five years.
This week, oil prices have declined – for example, Brent is trading in the range of $66-67 per barrel. OPEC+ has announced a significant increase in production (over 500 thousand barrels per day since September), and the imbalance between supply and demand is beginning to be smoothed out as the peak supply season gradually ends.
The meeting between Trump and Putin in Alaska is putting the market on edge. If sanctions against Russia are eased, prices could move downward, even to below $60 per barrel. On the other hand, if the opposite is true, the confrontation will escalate, and prices could jump up, approaching or even surpassing $80-90 per barrel.
Gas balance in Ukraine
During the week, natural gas imports from Europe averaged 21 million cubic meters per day (1 million cubic meters higher than the previous week), from Hungary, Poland, Moldova, and Slovakia. The Hungarian direction was mainly used, although the share of other directions remained high. Ukraine’s storage facilities held about 10.4 bcm. There was virtually no withdrawal. Injection amounted to about 51 million cubic meters per day.
Interesting things for the week
For the first time, a €500 million loan for gas imports to Ukraine is provided under the EU’s UIF Hi-Bar program , which does not require a Ukrainian state guarantee, Gas United reports. The UIF – Ukraine Investment Framework – is the investment component of the Ukraine Facility program for the rehabilitation of energy infrastructure. The financing was launched at the URC-2024 in Berlin. The EBRD provided the funds for gas imports under the Hi-Bar facility, which aims to remove barriers to mobilizing the financing needed to accelerate the transition of the energy sector to net-zero, which involves the maximum possible reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
The long-awaited revival in the construction of vegetable storage facilities has begun in Ukraine, with small and medium-sized facilities prevailing, Andriy Marushchak, Commercial Director of Van Dyke Techs, told SEEDS in an interview. According to him, this format allows farms to quickly meet local needs, but “storage is not everything”: without parallel development of processing, the effect will be limited.
According to the expert, construction is currently most active in Lviv, Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Odesa, Dnipro, and Chernihiv regions. The farmers’ decision was influenced by the high cost of logistics: “It is no longer as profitable to transport onions 400-800 km as it is to grow and store them closer to the market,” Marushchak said.
The most promising areas for a quick launch are French fries, dried mashed potatoes, peeled/ready-made potatoes; for onions, peeling, freezing and drying. In countries where processing is already in operation, farmers have gradually scaled up storage facilities from 3 to 30 thousand tons or more; it is logical for the Ukrainian market to follow the same trajectory, the expert emphasizes.
Vegetable consumption in Ukraine is less than 30% of WHO recommendations (≈150-200 g per day versus 600 g), which restrains demand beyond the “borscht set”. In a typical consumption structure, the share of potatoes is 50-60%, cabbage – ~10%, carrots – ~5%, and beets – “very little,” Marushchak said.
For the stable operation of storage and processing plants, it is important for farmers to form commodity lots and fulfill long-term contracts through professionally managed cooperatives, a model that has been successfully operating in the EU, the expert emphasizes.
https://www.seeds.org.ua/ovochesxovishh-v-ukraini-stane-bilshe-fermeri-pochali-aktivne-budivnictvo/
The total forecast for wheat production in Ukraine for the 2025-2026 marketing year (July-June) is about 21 million tons, of which 10.3 million tons will be food wheat, while the harvest of grade 1-2 grain, which is needed to produce bread-making flour, is forecast at 1.7 million tons, according to Rodion Rybchinsky, chairman of the Ukrainian Millers’ Union.
“We are already seeing growing competition between processors and exporters for high-quality wheat, while farmers, who have the opportunity to store grain for several years, are in no hurry to sell it. This creates risks for price stability and the availability of flour and bakery products for consumers,“ the association’s press service quoted him as saying at the ”Khleb.ua” conference on its Facebook page.
Rybchynsky drew attention to the situation with rye. Domestic production of this crop in Ukraine does not fully cover domestic demand. In 2025/26 MY, flour millers will have to import about 9,000 tons, while in the previous season this figure was 1,600 tons. The expert emphasized that such an increase in imports indicates the formation of a persistent shortage of raw materials.
“The current production structure and behavior of farmers may lead to further increases in flour prices. While the shortage of first- and second-class raw materials already determines the industry’s prospects, the issue of food grain availability poses risks to the country’s food security,” stressed the head of the Ukrainian Millers Association.
German newspaper Die Welt, citing EU diplomats, reports that Chinese authorities have confirmed their readiness to participate in a peacekeeping contingent for Ukraine.
However, it is emphasized that the government in Beijing will be ready to do so “if the peacekeepers are deployed on the basis of a United Nations mandate.”
“In Brussels, Beijing’s plan has met with a mixed reaction. On the one hand, it is said that the inclusion of countries from the Global South, such as China, could make the deployment of foreign troops for peace monitoring more acceptable,” Die Welt writes.
“However, on the other hand,” the publication continues, “there is also a danger that China will primarily want to spy on Ukraine and take a clearly pro-Russian position instead of a neutral one in the event of a conflict,” said a senior EU diplomat familiar with the ongoing discussions.
The number of written appeals to the National Bank of Ukraine on the activities of insurance companies in the second quarter of 2025 decreased by 9.3% – to 321, oral appeals through the contact center – by 18%, to 41, according to the report on the work with appeals of consumers of financial services in the mentioned period.
“We observe a tendency to decrease the number of written appeals on the work of financial, collection companies and insurers. At the same time, we note an increase in the number of questions regarding the work of banks of all forms of ownership,” the report says.
It is noted that the share of identified violations in written appeals regarding the activities of insurers is 22%, state banks – 2.8%, private banks – 1.8%, foreign banks -1.3%, financial companies – 21%, collection companies – 34%.
Appeals regarding the activities of insurers relate to disputes when the consumer received compensation not in full or did not receive it at all.
According to the NBU, the reasons for such problems vary from violations of legislation on the part of insurers to the provision of false data on the occurrence of an insured event by the consumer. In addition, the amount of compensation for material damage may differ from the actual amount due to the expert opinion of the involved insurer’s specialist and the application of depreciation in the calculation of material damage, which is determined by the current legislation or the terms of the contract.
French President Emmanuel Macron called the next 15 days “critical” and welcomed US President Donald Trump’s intention to provide security guarantees for Ukraine.
In an interview with the public broadcaster LCI published on August 19, he said that in the next few weeks, everything possible should be done to ensure that a meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin takes place. “Then, according to the plan, a trilateral summit could take place in early September,” Macron added.
“But there is work to be done on security guarantees. Therefore, the next 15 days are absolutely critical. To finalize the work with the Americans to give content to the security guarantees. But first of all, we are going to eliminate ambiguities,” the French president said.
The specific content of the security guarantees is currently unknown, although Macron said that “the British, French, Germans, Turks and others are ready to carry out operations – not on the front line, not provocatively, but support operations in the air, at sea and on land.” At the same time, he warned that Russia is a destabilizing force, and President Vladimir Putin “has rarely kept his commitments.”
“One thing I know is that since the end of 2007-2008, President Putin has rarely honored his commitments. He has always been a destabilizing force and has sought to redraw borders to expand his power,” the French president said.
“It is a predator, it is a cannibal at our gates. I’m not saying that tomorrow there will be an attack (by Russia – IF-U) on France, but in the end, it is a threat to Europeans,” Macron said.
