Ukraine – which has capacity to store 31 billion cubic metres of gas and is offering European companies around a third of that – looks increasingly attractive despite the obvious risks, The Telegraph has reported.
"Starting especially in July, we felt a higher natural demand from the major traders to store gas in Ukraine, taking the business risk by themselves," Oleksiy Chernyshov, the chief executive of Ukraine's largest oil and gas company Naftogaz," told the paper.
The Telegraph noted: "The EU has capacity to store around 100 billion cubic metres worth of gas, amounting to around a quarter of its annual demand. The ten billion cubic metres of gas storage on offer could provide a lifeline through a difficult winter and expand its reserves by 10pc. Sending gas into Ukraine through pipelines in Poland, Hungary, Slovakia or Moldova allows companies to buy when prices tend to be lower in the summer and retrieve it when demand is high in winter."
It suggested that UK consumers would indirectly benefit from increased use of Ukraine’s infrastructure, as the backup supply would help to keep a lid on European gas prices which influence UK heating bills.
Flows to Ukraine will likely keep growing, even as troops battle on the front line hundreds of miles away, the paper predicts.