There May Be Daily Gas Shortage During Heating Season 2021/2022 At Subzero Temperatures – MP Kucherenko

First Deputy Chairperson of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Energy, Member of Parliament Oleksii Kucherenko (Batkivschyna All-Ukrainian Association) states that during the heating season 2021/2022, at subzero temperatures, there may be a daily shortage of gas.

Kucherenko said this during a press conference on Monday, December 13, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

"At subzero temperatures, a daily gas shortage is absolutely real, when the GTS (gas transmission system) needs 160-180 million cubic meters of gas for consumption, and we can pump 120-130 million cubic meters of gas into the GTS at most," Kucherenko said.

He recalled that earlier the state could compensate for the gas deficit due to the fact that the GTS was filled with full-fledged gas transit from Gazprom (Russia) to Europe.

“Let me remind you that two years ago our GTS transported about 100 billion cubic meters of gas, and, accordingly, at any time Ukraine could contract and withdraw gas from the GTS with compensation on the western border. Today, there is practically no such possibility,” Kucherenko noted.

According to him, now it is possible either buy the deficit 2 billion cubic meters of gas or to introduce a National Action Plan at the level of a crisis situation - this is the norm of Article 6 of the Law "On the Gas Market", in which, in the case of a gas shortage, individual consumers must be disconnected or restricted.

“Therefore, we can buy gas at a super-expensive price and we have the only opportunity to buy gas only from Slovakia. But there are some risks: Slovakia is directly dependent on Russia, and there may be a situation when we will not be able to import these 2 billion cubic meters of gas. Also, the daily opportunity to import gas from Slovakia is 20-25 million cubic meters of gas, that is, we will not be able to instantly cover this deficit. I would also like to ask the government if the National Action Plan is ready and whether the issue of its introduction was discussed at the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC)," Kucherenko said.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, as of December 11, 2021, gas reserves in underground storage facilities (UGS) decreased by 39.2% or 9.97 billion cubic meters to 15.465 billion cubic meters compared to the data for the same date last year (25.4 billion cubic meters).

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal states that the gas reserves in underground storage are sufficient for heating and technological needs in the heating season 2021/2022.

At the same time, Deputy Energy Minister Maksym Nemchynov noted that in the case of a gas shortage, there is an opportunity to import it at the reserved, guaranteed capacity from Slovakia.