Ukrainian storage facilities contain 10 bcm of gas
KYIV. Feb 27 (Interfax) - Underground storage facilities in Ukraine contained around 10 billion cubic meters of gas as of the end of February, Evhen Bakulin, CEO of national oil and gas company Naftogaz, told reporters.
These facilities usually have 6-7 bcm of gas left by the end of the heating season in April, and this should be the case this year, Bakulin said.
He also confirmed that Naftogaz bought nearly all the gas that Ukraine imported from Russia since the start of this year. Ostchem Holding Limited imported Russian gas in parallel with Naftogaz last year, but scaled those purchases back last month.
Naftogaz had technical problems with settlements with Russia's Gazprom for gas supplied in January due to this, he said.
"These were technical issues, but there are no fundamental problems. We have enough gas and we are covering industry, households and utility providers entirely. We're getting through this season and starting to think about next season and are already making preparations for it," Bakulin said.
Naftogaz has not fully settled with Gazprom for gas supplied last month due to certain technical discrepancies, but there is no threat of financial sanctions, Naftogaz deputy chief Vadim Chuprun has said. The payment in question was for gas bought by chemicals plants for which OstChem was the principal supplier last year.
A large part of the money for the gas has already been transferred, he said, allowing that before the end of today gas imported in January could be completely paid for.
Ukraine had 20.7 bcm of gas in underground storage at the start of the heating season: facilities operated by Ukrtransgaz contained 19.9 bcm on October 22, and Chernomornaftogaz facilities held just over 800 million cu m.
Storage facilities contained around 7.5 bcm of gas at the end of the 2011/2012 season, in April 2012, when Ukraine started to inject gas into these facilities.
The indicative 2012 natural gas balance called for injecting 13.135 bcm of gas, including 4.887 bcm in Q2, 7.602 bcm in Q3 and 646 mcm in Q4.
Ukraine has 13 underground storage facilities with active capacity of more than 31 bcm.
Ukrtransgaz operates 12 facilities and Chernomornaftogaz one. Naftogaz is the sole owner of both companies.
