The former director general of the company "Operator of the Gas Transport System of Ukraine" (OGTSU) Serhii Makohon declares that of 14.7 billion cubic meters of gas accumulated in the Ukrainian underground gas storages (UGS), 2.6 billion cubic meters belong to non-residents.
He announced this on Facebook, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"The Ministry of Energy continues to create a warm bath before winter. Now it bravo reports on the accumulation of 14.7 billion cubic meters in Ukrainian UGS and thanks the "new management" of Naftogaz. But it forgets to say that of the specified 14.7 billion cubic meters 2.6 billion cubic meters of gas belong to non-residents, who have already sold it in advance and will take it back to the EU in December-February. Therefore, it is incorrect to take them into account in the gas balance for passing the winter in Ukraine," he wrote.
According to Makohon, in fact, UGS has only approximately 12.1 billion cubic meters of gas, which the Ukrainian consumer can theoretically count on.
"Theoretically" because in these 12.1 cubic meters there is still gas from private producers, gas from the GTS Operator and other owners who are not obliged to supply it to the population, thermal utilities and energy companies... Therefore, there is now a significant lag behind the indicators last year, when UGS had 13 billion cubic meters on September 1, and 14.5 billion cubic meters at the end of October. And among these volumes there was no gas from non-residents. That is, there are currently 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas in UGS less available for winter than last year. Although plans for the use of gas by energy companies this winter are much larger," he said.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on September 19, Oleksii Chernyshov, the chairman of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, announced that 14.7 billion cubic meters of gas needed for the autumn-winter period had been pumped into the underground storage ahead of time.
Also, as of mid-September, European traders stored about 2 billion cubic meters of gas in Ukrainian underground storages.
At the same time, the Ministry of Energy predicts that by the beginning of winter, the volume of gas supplied by European traders to Ukrainian UGSs will increase to 3 billion cubic meters.
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