Ukraine starts taking gas out of underground storage facilities

MOSCOW. Oct. 23 (Interfax) - Ukraine stopped injecting natural gas into underground gas storage facilities on October 22 and began withdrawing it, Ukrainian media reported, citing data from the European platform Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI).

Natural gas inventory in Ukraine's underground storage facilities exceeded 8.5 billion cubic meters, excluding long-term buffer stocks, as of October 22.

Ukraine had stored a targeted 13.2 bcm, including 4.7 bcm of buffer gas, two weeks ahead of the government's November 1 deadline.

Olga Buslavets, a former energy minister, said a decline in gas production and increase in consumption as heating was switched on in some social facilities, had slowed gas injection into underground gas storage facilities to 10 million cubic meters per day at the end of last week.