Ukraine starts season of gas injection into underground storage facilities

On March 31, Ukraine officially launched the season of natural gas injection into underground storage facilities. For the first time this year, the volume of gas injection (1.4 mcm) exceeded the volume of withdrawal (0.1 mcm). This was reported by Naftogaz.

This year's season of gas withdrawal from storage facilities lasted 145 days and became one of the shortest in history. As a reminder, the gas withdrawal season started quite late - on November 7, 2023, which was made possible by the warm weather in October. The completion of gas withdrawals in March was also possible due to the warm weather in the second half of March, which resulted in the end of the heating season in Ukraine.

During the withdrawal season, more than 8.49 bcm of natural gas was withdrawn from storage facilities, including 6.7 bcm during the winter. Most of this gas was used for domestic consumption in winter. A part of the gas - 1.84 bcm - was exported from the "customs warehouse" of Ukrainian UGS facilities to European countries.

According to ExPro estimates, at the end of this year's gas withdrawal season, more than 8.12 bcm of natural gas (including 566 mcm of buffer gas) were stored in Ukrainian UGS facilities, 11% or 980 mcm less than at the end of March last year. According to Naftogaz and the Ministry of Energy (excluding buffer gas), almost 7.56 bcm of natural gas are stored in storage facilities.

Active gas reserves in underground storage facilities amounted to 3.35 bcm at the end of the withdrawal season. This is the gas that companies can withdraw from storage facilities and does not include active long-term storage gas and buffer gas.

At the end of the withdrawal season, about 1.5 bcm of gas was stored in the "customs warehouse" of Ukrainian UGS facilities, of which non-residents store about 0.7 bcm. Non-residents were quite active in re-exporting natural gas from Ukrainian storage facilities to European countries during the gas withdrawal season. However, in March, some companies began injecting small amounts of gas into the "customs warehouse" of Ukrainian UGS facilities.