Data shows that Ukraine gas imports will increase by 10% on Thursday.

Data provided by the operator for gas transmission systems shows that Ukraine will increase its gas imports by 10% to 25 million cubic metres on Thursday, following Russian missile attacks which damaged Ukrainian gas production plants earlier in the week.

Ukraine's Naftogaz, the state-owned oil and gas company in Ukraine, and DTEK, a private energy firm said that gas production facilities had been damaged by a Russian air attack on central Poltava on Tuesday.

Operator data indicated that 9.8 mcm would be imported from Hungary on Thursday, followed by 11.6 mcm in Slovakia and 3.5mcm in Poland. Ukraine began increasing its gas imports in February, and since then the volume has increased by almost 10 times.

On Wednesday, a senior Ukrainian official in the energy sector said that Ukraine was asking its allies for help to buy more gas. The country is increasing gas imports.

German Galushchenko, Ukraine's Energy Minister, had told Interfax Ukraine last week that the country may need to import up to a billion cubic meters of gas for the current heating season.

Ukraine imports gas directly from the European Union, as it hasn't bought Russian gas directly since 2015. Last week, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Ukraine was also willing to store US liquefied gas in its underground storage.

In winter, Ukraine uses between 110 and140 mcm per day. This is almost equally covered by the domestic production of gas and storage facility reserves. Ukraine uses gas primarily to heat its homes and cook.

According to analyst estimates, gas consumption in Ukraine could be as high as 150 mcm. (Reporting and editing by Tom Hogue; Reporting by Pavel Polityuk)

(source: Reuters)