Gas reserves in Ukraine's storage facilities set an anti-record

Alexey Gromov, Principal Director on Energy studies at the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Vedomosti newspaper on the expected problems with filling Ukrainian UGS facilities by the next heating season.

Alexey Gromov notes that the minimum required gas reserve in UGS facilities to maintain the operation of Ukraine's gas transportation system is 5 billion cubic meters. In order for the storage facilities to "simply operate" and allow gas extraction, at least 3 billion cubic meters are needed, he clarifies. If we focus on the volumes that Ukraine has spent this winter (about 7 billion cubic meters), for the passage of the next heating season, there should be about 10-12 billion cubic meters in storage, the expert estimated.

According to Gromov, it will be more difficult for Kiev to import gas in 2025 than in previous years due to the lack of an opportunity to take part of the volumes of Russian gas that were in transit through Ukraine (supplies stopped on January 1, 2025 after the expiration of a long-term contract. – "Vedomosti").

But even if imported gas reaches Ukraine, the expert notes, it may happen that there will be nowhere to store it due to the UGS partial damage.