REUTERS
The company is a key player in the European gas market.
The state-owned operator of Ukraine's gas transmission system (GTS), Ukrtransgaz, says German-based RWE AG in July 2019 used Ukraine's customs warehouse gas storage service for the first time.
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"In July, one of the key players in the European gas market, the German gas trading company RWE, first used the customs warehouse gas storage service in Ukraine. Before this, the trader had been holding its operation on the western border of Ukraine," Ukrtransgaz's press service said in a statement on August 5.
Negotiations on the possibility of using Ukraine's underground storage facilities (USFs) with the leading European trader lasted several years.
According to Dietrich Hoffmann, a RWE representative, the German company accomplished gas import and export operations with Ukraine including the use of the Ukrainian gas storage facilities. Before that, RWE was operating mainly on the border of Ukraine, it said.
RWE AG is the German electric utilities company based in Essen, Germany. Through its various subsidiaries, the energy company supplies electricity and gas to more than 20 million electricity customers and 10 million gas customers, principally in Europe. RWE is the second-largest electricity producer in Germany, the press service added.
UNIAN memo. Ukrtransgaz operates 12 underground gas storages (USFs) with a total storage capacity of about 31 bcm. The USFs are an integral part of Ukraine's gas supply system and gas transit through its territory. The company is also the operator of trunk gas pipelines carrying gas from Russia to the EU.
In the past decade, Ukraine uses only 50-60% of its storage capacity. Five largest Ukrainian underground storage facilities are located in Ukraine's west, some 160 km from the border with Hungary.
Ukrtransgaz is wholly owned by NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine.