Freezing cold in Ukraine: Gas withdrawal from USFs hits five-year high

CEO of state-owned enterprise Ukrtransgaz, the Ukrainian operator of gas storage facilities, Serhiy Pereloma says 136 million cubic meters (mcm) of natural gas was withdrawn from the country's underground storage facilities (USFs) in the past 24 hours, which has hit a five-year high.

Read alsoGas price in 2021: Regulator proposes tariff cuts for 14 regional gas distribution companies"The record volumes of gas withdrawn are proof of the success of the [country's] European vector, which we have been actively developing in recent years. These days, we are pumping gas from USFs not only for the needs of Ukrainians, but also for foreign customers," he wrote on Facebook on January 19.

Pereloma also noted that the previous time the volume of gas withdrawal was nearing such a figure was in early March 2018 – in one of the last stages of the "gas war" with Russia's Gazprom. Some 116 mcm of gas was withdrawn from Ukrainian USFs on March 1, 2018.

"At that time, Gazprom reduced gas supplies to the Ukrainian GTS, virtually eliminating transit shipments of contracted volumes to the EU countries. Ukraine then resisted, contracting additional volumes of gas in Poland, increasing gas withdrawals from its storage facilities, and significantly reducing gas consumption," he added.

Background

• Natural gas stocks in Ukraine's underground storage facilities shrank by 2.6%, to 22.5 billion cubic meters (bcm) within a week, January 9-16.
• As of January 16, 2021, gas reserves in the country's USFs increased by 27% from 17.7 bcm as of January 16, 2020.
• The USFs were filled by 73% as of January 16, 2021.