Ukraine's underground gas storage facilities are helping the EU to avoid energy crises and keep gas prices in check during the heating season.
Ukraine's significant gas reserves help to energy groups and traders to make only relatively small drawdowns from repositories in the European Union, analysts said, keeping gas prices low and making refilling them easier next year, according to Financial Times.
The EU's storage levels, despite the cold periods of weather, have stayed at nearly 90 per cent even in late December, well above the previous five-year average, according to industry body Gas Infrastructure Europe.
"Ukraine is playing a key role for central and eastern Europe's security of gas supply this winter," said Natasha Fielding, head of European gas pricing at Argus Media, a price reporting agency.
Calling on gas stored in Ukraine "helps Europe to keep its domestic stockpiles high, reducing the risk of sites nearly emptying over any sustained cold in late winter", she said.
Companies began taking gas out of Ukrainian storage in early November, with net withdrawals averaging around 10.7m cu.m. per day, according to Argus Media. That pace accelerated amid a cold snap in December, with net drawdowns nearly doubling to an average of 26m cu.m. daily until mid-December.
Argus said Poland received more than half the gas pulled out of Ukrainian storage, with the rest used by Moldova, Slovakia and Hungary.