Reserves of natural gas in Ukrainian UGS fell below 14 bcm
As of December 28, 2021, the total reserves of natural gas in Ukrainian underground gas storages (UGS) fell below 14 bcm, and became 45 % full to their design storage capacities, according to data obtained by ExPro. Noteworthy, at this time in 2020, UGS stored 10 bcm, or 42% less gas, than today. It was also the lowest value on this date in the last 5 years.
Stocks of non-residents in the Ukrainian UGS also decreased to 0.7 bcm kept ubdwe the customs bonded warehouse regime, of which 0.5 bcm for short-haul. Non-residents continue to withdraw their gas for export to Europe. Ukrainian companies store about 0.5 bcm of gas in the customs warehouse regime, of which 0.4 bcm are short-haul. A significant part of the gas in the Ukrainian UGS is stored by NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine.
Since the beginning of this year's UGS gas withdrawal (October 6, 2021), Ukraine has used almost 4.9 bcm of gas from the UGS, or by 9% (400 mcm ) more than in the same period of 2020. There were 1.3 bcm more gas withdrawn from the Ukrainian UGS than was pumped this year. Thus, the withdrawals are possible due to the accumulated and leftover reserves in the previous year. Compared to the beginning of the 2020 withdrawal season, stocks in the UGS more than halved.
One may remember that part of the UGS gas volumes - 4.66 bcm - is long-term storage gas. Also, about 176 mcm of gas are stored in the Vergunske UGS, which is located in the territory temporarily not controlled by Ukraine, so there is no access to this resource.