5th of August, 2020, Kyiv – For 7 months of 2020, the Gas TSO of Ukraine transported, by customers’ order, 9.2 bln cub m of gas from Europe to Ukraine. This is 21% (1.6 bln cub m) higher than in the same period last year. This is also 48% higher than the average in 2016-2019.
In total, for 7 months of 2020, imports from Slovakia amounted to 5.4 bln cub m (+16% compared to the same period last year), from Hungary – 2.7 bln cub m (+ 26%) and from Poland – 1.1 bln cub m (+33%).
In particular, 28%, or 2.6 bln cub m were imported by means of the virtual reverse flow (backhaul), which became available for the first time in 2020: from Slovakia – 0.2 bln cub m, from Hungary – 1.7 bln cub m and from Poland – 0.7 bln cub m.
According to GTSOU operative data, in July 2020, 2.1 bln cub m of natural gas were imported to Ukraine. That is 9% (or 183 mln cub m) higher than the import volumes of July 2019. In addition, this is 18% (or 320 mln cub m) higher than in June 2020.
Moreover, since the beginning of August, the daily volumes of gas transmission from the European countries to Ukraine have sharply increased by additional 55% and reached a new historical record which is 107 mln cub m.
“The GTSOU team succeeded to launch new services and opportunities for capacity utilization of the Ukrainian GTS. The short-haul service together with the “customs warehouse” mode of the gas storage became interesting for traders and engaged new importers, and the most important result – Ukraine has achieved record volumes of both imports from the EU and the accumulation of gas in underground storage facilities. It is now confirmed in practice that the so-called “European gas market rules” bring real benefits to the state, when they are properly implemented, and stimulate the development of the internal market. The Gas TSO plays a key role, so we plan to further improve and create new opportunities at all interconnection points of the Ukrainian GTS for complete integration with European markets,” said Sergiy Makogon, General Director of GTSOU.
Such boost in imports is due to a significant increase in demand for the gas storage in the “customs warehouse” mode in Ukrainian facilities by European companies. Due to restricted capacities available at European UGS and attractive tariffs and services in Ukraine, this year Ukraine is breaking records for gas intakes into underground storage facilities and is taking an important step towards development as a European gas hub.
Starting from the beginning of the year, 5.4 bln cub m of imported volumes were transferred to underground storage facilities into the “customs warehouse” mode. Of which 54% (or 2.9 bln cub m) came by means of short-haul.
In total, 69 traders have booked gas transmission from the EU to Ukraine in January-July, including 44 Ukrainian companies and 25 foreign companies. In particular, 52 customers have used the short-haul service and the “customs warehouse” storage mode, including 24 residents and 28 non-residents.
It should be noted, that starting from November 2015, all imported volumes of natural gas come exclusively from EU countries. Since that month, Ukraine has not been importing natural gas from the Russian Federation.
