Winter without heat: Kucherenko predicts rise in gas prices and possible blackouts

16 October 17:15

The heating season in Ukraine is under serious threat due to a shortage of gas in storage facilities. That’s why city mayors are postponing the launch of boiler houses. However, at the same time, gas will be cut off to save money.

What are the forecasts for the supply of heat and hot water this winter, who will be left without gas and when to expect an increase in the cost of the “blue light” – said MP, former Minister of Housing and Communal Services Oleksiy Kucherenko on the air "Komersant Ukrainian".

In theory, the decision to start the heating season should be made by the city executive committee. No wonder Dnipro Mayor Filatov recently appealed to all mayors and residents with a proposal to start the heating season as late as possible to use less gas.

This is patriotic, unpopular, and courageous. There is a criterion according to which, if the average daily temperature drops below 8 degrees, the heating season must start. But even if he (the mayor – ed.) starts heating, it is not a fact that at that time he will have an agreement with Naftogaz, that limits will be allocated and he will receive this gas, because now everything is sealed. Therefore, Kyiv will start shifting responsibility to the center, and the center will start shifting responsibility to Kyiv, the former minister believes.

“We no longer have time to pump gas into the storage facilities, so they will buy and import it for a lot of money and directly feed it into the system in January and February to keep up the pressure. Maybe it’s time to draw some conclusions about Naftogaz! And about the corporate reform, and about the stupid supervisory board, and the whole system of management of state-owned companies? Gas experts are right: we will survive this season, there may be some problematic moments, locally with pressure, but I do not believe that there will be no pressure in the system at all. And if anyone is going to be restricted in gas consumption, it will be businesses. And if they start restricting business, we will see it later in store prices,” says Oleksiy Kucherenko.

But even after the heating season is over, the situation will become even worse. Because there will be no gas, no money, but there will be loans from Naftogaz, and by the next season the problem will only get worse. Therefore, according to the MP’s forecasts, we should expect an increase in gas prices after the heating season.

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“I guarantee that as soon as we get out of winter, there will be an increase in gas prices. All the experts – European, World Bank, EBRD and others – will say: either raise gas tariffs for the population, or we will not give you money. However, if we look at Naftogaz’s purely economic performance, the current gas price for households absolutely covers all the costs of Ukrgazvydobuvannya (a subsidiary), i.e. the cost price. It fully covers them with a large margin – by 2-3 UAH more,” Oleksiy Kucherenko is sure.

According to the MP, Naftogaz has turned into a “black hole” where the profit it makes from selling its own gas to the population is lost… “Chernyshov also said that we have enough of our own gas for the population. Then Ukraine does not need European prices.

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