Ukrainian gas storage facilities have a small gas reserve. Will Ukraine buy gas in full?
1 April 20:05
Ukraine may have to import record amounts of gas from Europe due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure and depleting reserves, Bloomberg reports, citing
Dmytro Sakharuk, CEO of D.Trading, DTEK’s trading unit, said:
“We believe that Ukraine will need up to 5 billion cubic meters of gas in the season from April 2025 to April 2026.”
He noted that this is significantly more than the maximum of 1 billion cubic meters in previous seasons.
Sergiy Nagornyak, member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities
“Since January 2025, the Russians have been attacking our gas production infrastructure almost every day, and this has affected our own gas production. They have attacked both the state-owned and private gas production industry,” says Nagornyak.
According to him, Ukraine’s gas storage facilities currently have a record low gas reserve, which must be replenished over the summer from domestic gas production.
“According to our forecasts, we will not be able to have the volume we need for the next winter. As a state, we must now find the resources to purchase about five billion cubic meters of gas so that Ukrainian gas storage facilities have enough gas to last through the winter from 2025 to 2026. And today, the government, the president, and parliamentary diplomacy are working to find resources so that Naftogaz can purchase and pump the appropriate amount of gas into underground storage facilities. We are talking about five billion cubic meters of gas,” emphasizes the member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities.
According to experts, as of the spring or summer of 2025, this may be somewhere around two billion US dollars.
“As far as I know, we, as parliamentarians, are negotiating with Norway, the Japanese government, and other countries so that donor countries can provide enhanced financial assistance, either business loans or, best of all, guarantee funds so that Ukrainians can purchase gas in the European Union, on the European market, to pump it into underground storage facilities,” summarized Sergiy Nagornyak.
In addition, Oleksiy Kucherenko, First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities , said that the deficit being discussed is a projected one and has not yet been drawn up for the next heating season, but “now, well, all sources, including Naftogaz, confirm this figure: in the region of 4-4.5 billion, we need to look for gas from outside. That is, Ukrainian gas will not be enough, given the fact that consumption is growing, but production is not growing, and it is even more affected.”
“I would not exaggerate this factor of damage, this is sensitive information, just speculating on it is something I would not advise. And this is true, given the minimum reserves in the storage facilities, and this problem has been accumulating for many years, as they did not pump as much as necessary, they were always on the verge of it. And so, given all this, this issue is very acute, and we are talking about finding the resource ourselves, which means that it must be contracted, you know, and not bought at spot prices,” Kucherenko said.
He explained that the gas shortage is the result of a long-term crisis in the state’s management of its asset, Naftogaz.
“Because we were playing with all these supervisory boards, like some kind of market, some kind of Naftogaz self-sufficient structure, supervisory board, and now it turned out that no one is responsible for anything, and there is no money,” explains the MP.
Ukraine can buy gas on the European market.
“Europe, they have a market there, but it will be a matter of price. This is not the same situation as last summer. Last summer, it was quite low, and now the forecasts are not so far off, so it will be a question of money in the first place,” says Kucherenko.
He drew attention to the fact that Naftogaz does not have a full-fledged management, because it has an acting chairman of the board.
“Mr. Chernyshov left, as you know, sometime in November, although he was supposed to have a year-long contract, which, in my opinion, is not a healthy situation. And it’s not an easy board there. There is a competition that will end in May, maybe,” says the MP.
The first deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Housing and Utilities emphasized that Ukrainians will not be left without gas, but he is frightened by the “absolutely inefficient management system on the part of the government.”
