Yurii Vitrenko, the chairman of the board of the Naftogaz of Ukraine National Joint-Stock Company, says that in order to achieve the level of natural gas reserve in underground storage facilities (USF) established by the government by the beginning of the 2022-2023 heating season of 19 billion cubic meters, it is necessary to import about 5.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas for USD 8 billion, while Ukraine turned to the United States with a proposal to supply the volumes of natural gas it lacks under the Lend-Lease law.
He said this at a press conference, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"Now we have more natural gas than usual in USF (10.5 billion cubic meters), production fell, but relative to consumption it fell not so critically, consumption fell much more than production. Now there is a surplus in the Ukrainian natural gas market. Therefore, we can pump natural gas into USF and prepare for the heating season... In order to create a large natural gas reserve of 19 billion cubic meters by the beginning of the heating season, as the government wants, this means that almost 5.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas must be additionally imported and USD 8 billion spent on this. Now we are talking with international partners how much they can help us with this money or natural gas," Vitrenko said.
He clarified that the level of natural gas reserve for the heating season in USF of 15 billion cubic meters may also be sufficient, but military risks must be taken into account, and therefore a higher level of reserves has been established by the Government.
According to Vitrenko, he turned to the U.S. government with a proposal to assist in the purchase of missing natural gas volumes.
"As one of the options to do so that Ukraine can receive such large volumes of natural gas, or such large funding, we have proposed the Lend-Lease option. During World War II, the Lend-Lease included certain energy products, fuel, and more. Therefore, using this analogy, we said that one option could be when the U.S. government provides us with natural gas. Since Lend-Lease at least hypothetically means that you are given weapons for temporary use and you must then return it, we said that in such a situation we can say that we will return these volumes of natural gas, for example, in 2 years. Also, considering that we take natural gas in reserve and it will not be consumed, also somehow we will be able to give it later. This is one of the options that we are working on with our international partners," he said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the Cabinet of Ministers instructed the Naftogaz of Ukraine National Joint-Stock Company to ensure the availability of natural gas as of October 1, 2022 in natural gas storage facilities in an amount sufficient for the stable passage of the autumn-winter period 2022/2023, including meeting the needs of household consumers and heat supply enterprises, but at least 19 billion cubic meters.
U.S. President Joe Biden on May 9 signed a law on Lend-Lease for Ukraine.
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