Naftogaz urgently purchases about 150 million cubic meters of gas from EU for February

The Naftogaz Group, which assured that it would get through the winter without imports, urgently purchased about 150 million cubic meters of gas from the European Union for February.

The former head of the GTS Operator of Ukraine, Serhii Makohon, wrote about this on Facebook, the Ukrainian News agency reports.

“This is positive news, because without imports, the risks of a stable winter increase significantly.

And the negative news is that the price at which Naftogaz bought from foreign traders was about UAH 28,000 per 1,000 cubic meters excluding VAT,” Makohon wrote.

Makohon noted that this is almost 2 times more expensive than it could have been bought in the summer.

But then Naftogaz only actively published press releases about plans to get through the winter without imports, although mathematics simply showed that this was almost impossible.

"Buying on the spot is the most unwise strategy. Naftogaz could have contracted volumes in the summer and autumn with supplies in February and March. But it did not do this.

Of course, now everything can be attributed to enemy attacks and damage, but such risks must always be taken into account when planning, because this is already the third year of the war. And planning to go through the winter with gas reserves in underground storage facilities less than 10% was a very risky strategy, for which we will now have to pay a lot," Makohon noted.

Earlier, the former head of LLC GTS Operator of Ukraine Serhii Makohon reported that Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities are gradually approaching the 10% fill level, when the design capacity for gas withdrawal will drop to 60 million cubic meters per day, which will not be enough to meet consumer needs in the event of a cold snap.

At the end of January, the Naftogaz Group reported that gas reserves were sufficient for a stable heating season of 2024/2025, but at the same time began importing gas.

As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, in early November 2024, Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko assured that Ukraine would have enough gas to last the heating season of 2024-2025.

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