By the beginning of winter, more than 16bn cu.m. of gas will be accumulated in Ukrainian gas storage facilities. These reserves are absolutely enough to get us through the winter with confidence.
This was stated by Oleksiy Chernyshov, Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, in an interview with LB.ua.
"There is still time before the start of the so-called heating season. This year, the Ukrainian government has set a target to accumulate 14.7bn cu.m. "Naftogaz has even exceeded the plan. As of today, we already have 15.75bn cu.m. of gas," he said.
Naftogaz CEO predicts that by the beginning of winter, 16bn cu.m. of gas will be accumulated.
"Is it enough? Because numbers in billions of cu.m. are not always clear to people. I must assure you that these figures are absolutely sufficient to get through the winter with confidence. We will also continue our own gas production," Chernyshov assured.
He reminded that at the beginning of winter last year, about 14bn cu.m. of gas had been accumulated.
"That is, we have accumulated much more than last year. Why? There are two components of the result. The first and most important is the increase in Ukrainian gas production. Thanks to Naftogaz Group, it has been gradually growing. We have reached the +7% amount compared to the previous year. I should also note that we managed to provide conditions and facilitate production by private companies that could not export free resources. "Naftogaz entered the procurement market to enable these companies to produce and remain liquid. The second factor is the additional volume of gas stored by non-residents. We have managed to involve them, which is an important result," added the Naftogaz CEO.