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By start of the withdrawal season, Ukrainian USFs will be filled by about 85%.
Gas volumes in Ukraine's underground gas storage facilities (USFs) have exceeded last year's figure as of the end of injection season, amounting to 21.8 billion cubic meters, the state-owned Ukrtransgaz operator reports.
This year, Ukraine achieved said stock volumes 100 days earlier than in 2019.
It is noted that as of August 1, 2019, some15.9 bcm of gas was stored in USFs.
"The current rates of gas injection are record-breaking for national USFs," the company noted.
Ukrtransgaz also expects that by the start of the withdrawal season, Ukrainian USFs will be filled by about 85% of the maximum capacity, which is 31 bcm.
"It is expected that by the beginning of the withdrawal season, Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities will be filled by about 25.5-26.5 billion cubic meters. At the same time, in 2020, the maximum level of active gas volumes in USFs will increase by 20% on year," the press service said.
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As UNIAN reported earlier, Ukraine on March 11 began injecting natural gas into USFs for the next heating season. Gas reserves in storage facilities as of March 11 amounted to 15.808 bcm.
By the beginning of the 2019-2020 heating season, Ukraine has accumulated 21.76 bcm of gas in its USFs, which was a record figure for the past ten years.
UNIAN memo. There are 12 underground gas storage facilities in operation in Ukraine with a total active capacity of about 31 bcm. In the last 10 years, Ukraine has been using only 50-60% of the technical capacity of its storage facilities to cover own demand. The five largest Ukrainian USFs are located in the western part of Ukraine, just 160 km from the border with Hungary.