Ukraine pumping gas into underground storage facilities 1.5 times faster than last year - Energy Ministry

MOSCOW. July 16 (Interfax) - Ukraine has restored over 50% of damaged generation facilities, Ukrainian media said, citing Deputy Energy Minister Nikolai Kolesnik.

"As of now, over 5GW were restored in the recent year," the media quoted Kolesnik as saying on the news telethon on Tuesday.

The Energy Ministry has a plan of repairs for this year but does not make it public for security reasons, he said.

He also spoke about preparations for the next heating season and said that the pace of pumping gas into underground storage facilities had been on the rise.

The pace of pumping gas into underground facilities is 1.5 times higher than last year, and the pumping continues on schedule, Kolesnik said. "We are confident that we can form the necessary reserves before the heating season begins," he said.

Ukraine will have sufficient reserves of coal and nuclear fuel for stable heating season 2025/26, he said.

According to former Energy Minister Olga Buslavets, natural gas reserves in Ukraine's underground storage facilities amounted to 8.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) at the end of last week (including 4.7 bcm of technological gas that cannot be removed from storages).

In turn, the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System Operator said that net gas imports (excluding transit short-haul) continued in enlarged amounts this week and reached 26.5 million cubic meters (mcm) per day (the gas was coming from Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Romania).

Last week, the daily gas consumption in Ukraine averaged 22 mcm per day, which, according to Europe's Agregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI), allowed pumping up to 55 mcm of gas into underground facilities per day.

As reported with the reference to former head of the Ukrainian Gas Transmission System Operator Sergei Makagon, Ukraine needs to import at least 5 bcm of gas in order to achieve last year's target of gas reserves in underground storage facilities, which stands at roughly 870 mcm per month or 29 mcm per day.