Operator data indicates that Ukraine will double its gas imports by Wednesday

Data provided by the operator for the state-owned gas transmission system revealed that Ukraine intends to double its daily imports of gas on Wednesday, to 5 million cubic meters (mcm).

The operator did explain the reason for the increase. However, temperatures in central Ukraine can fall to minus five degrees Celsius (23 degree Fahrenheit) at this time of the year.

Ukraine imports large volumes of gas, and it has underground storage facilities to meet the demand for winter heating.

After the Russian gas transit through Ukraine was stopped at the beginning of this year, Serhiy Makovon, former head of transmission operator said that the amount of gas in Ukraine’s storage facilities has fallen to near 10% and that the country must urgently start importing large amounts.

The gas imported on Wednesday is expected to be all from Hungary.

Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs, said on Wednesday that the European region can buy U.S. LNG (liquefied Natural Gas) which could be stored in underground Ukrainian storage.

He said that this would enable Ukraine to "play a role as a guarantor for energy security in Europe", and also "mutually benefiting cooperation".

Kyiv offers European companies preferential storage conditions. The volume of non-resident natural gas was approximately 3 billion cubic meters (bcm) last year.

Ukraine has around 30 bcm gas in its storage facilities, but it no longer reports the amount of gas stored in the facilities that are regularly targeted by Russian missiles since the full-scale Russian invasion of February 2022.

According to industry sources, Ukraine will need to import around 100 mcm per month of gas during the winter months to maintain its gas system following the shut down of Russian gas flowing to Europe through Ukraine. (Reporting and editing by Sharon Singleton, Barbara Lewis and Max Hunder; Additional reporting by Pavel Polityuk.

(source: Reuters)