Ukraine continues injecting gas into its underground storage facilities on Oct 27-29 ahead of heating season

MOSCOW. Nov 1 (Interfax) - Ukraine continued injecting gas into its underground storage facilities in small amounts on October 27-29 prior to the beginning of the active heating season, as is indicated by Europe's Agregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI), Ukrainian media outlets said.

The level of injection/withdrawal of gas from the Ukrainian underground storage facilities was zero on October 30.

As reported with a reference to former Ukrainian Energy Minister Olga Buslavets, the resumption of gas imports from Poland starting on October 23 amid a temporary period of warming should have delayed the active withdrawal of gas from Ukrainian underground storage facilities for another seven to ten days.

A drop in production as a result of damage to gas infrastructure and the increase in consumption after central heating went on in some social facilities had slowed daily gas injection into underground storage facilities to nearly zero by the end of the week, she said. In addition, this was also due to scheduled maintenance by Polish gas transmission network operator Gaz-System on October 20-25.

However, according to data from Ukraine's Gas Transmission System Operator (GTSOU), gas imports from Poland started to recover to some extent sooner than expected, to 5.6 mcm per day on October 23, rising to 6 mcm on October 24 with 9.9 mcm planned for October 25.

As reported with a reference to AGSI, Ukraine stopped injecting gas into underground gas storage facilities on October 22 and began withdrawing it.

But injection/withdrawal was zero on October 23 and there was even some inventory build on October 24

According to GTSOU, total imports of gas to Ukraine on October 30-31 stood at 24.5-25.2 mcm per day from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia and small amounts from Moldova and Romania.

Natural gas inventory in Ukraine's underground storage facilities exceeds 8.5 bcm, excluding long-term buffer stocks, according to AGSI.

Natalya Boiko, deputy chair of the Naftogaz Group supervisory board, said that Ukraine could fall short of roughly about a third of its planned natural gas production following 2024.

Naftogas CEO Sergei Koretsky, for his part, said on October 29 that Ukraine needs additional imports of a little over 4 bcm of gas before the end of the 2025-2026 heating season in order to pass it steadily.