June, 2, 2020, Kyiv – In January-May 2020, natural gas imports from the EU reached 5.2 billion cubic meters. This is 1.2 billion cubic meters, or 30%, more than in the same period last year. That is also 28% more than the average in 2016-2019.

During the five first months 2020 year, imports from Slovakia were about 2.8 billion cubic meters (+25% compared to the same period last year), from Hungary – 1.6 billion cubic meters (+38%), from Poland – 0.8 billion cubic meters (+40%). It should be noted that import volumes include the virtual reverse, which became available for the first time since this year: from Hungary – 0.642 billion cubic meters and from Poland – 0.497 billion cubic meters.

Besides, according to the operational data by LLC “GTS Operator of Ukraine”, 1.337 billion cubic meters of natural gas were imported to Ukraine in May 2020. This is 13% less (by 205 million cubic meters) than the import volumes in May 2019. And 18% (by 206 million cubic meters) exceeding the import volumes in April 2020.

Such import falling in May, compared to the same period last year, is due to the relatively high filling of underground gas storages in Ukraine. And the exceeding of the gas imports from EU countries in May compared to April 2020 – is due to the increase in demand for the new short-haul service, which Gas TSO of Ukraine has launched since 2020.

In total, since the beginning of the year, the 802 million cubic meters have been transported to Ukraine by short-haul. In fact, 100% of it were pumped by traders to the underground storage facility in the mode of “customs warehouse”.

As of today, all imported volumes of natural gas come exclusively from EU countries. Since November 2015, Ukraine has not been importing gas from the Russian Federation.