Ukrainian gas stocks shrink to almost 11.7 bcm within week

Natural gas stocks in Ukraine's underground storage facilities (USFs) on February 3-10 shrank by 4.8%, or 588 million cubic meters (mcm), to 11.681 billion cubic meters (bcm) from 12.269 bcm.

Read alsoGas transit via Ukraine in 2017 sets 7-year highIn particular, 78.36 mcm of gas was withdrawn from the storage facilities on February 10 alone, the state-run gas transport system operator Ukrtransgaz said.

As UNIAN reported earlier, CEO of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine Andriy Kobolyev forecast Ukraine would finish the 2017-2018 heating season with about 8 bcm – 9 bcm of gas in the country's USFs.

Ukraine started 2018 with 14.7 bcm of gas in its USFs, which was the largest gas stock as of the beginning of the year in the past five years.

On October 26, Ukraine stopped injecting gas into underground storage facilities and began pumping it out to ensure the smooth heating season.

Ukraine had accumulated 16.8 bcm of gas in the underground storage facilities by the beginning of the 2017-2018 heating season (October 15).