Ukraine Can Offer 14bn m³ Storage, Cheaply: Operator

Ukraine's infrastructure operator UkrTransgaz can offer up to 14bn m³ of storage capacity in its facilities and at a tenth of the price available in neighbouring countries, said executive director Sergiy Makogon. He told the Central European Gas Congress in Bratislava April 27 that this was about four times more capacity than was already on the drawing-board, according to published data.

"Our current neighbours’ plans are for 3.5bn m³ but we have already got the capacity connected to our neighbours," he said, quoting a price of about €0.40/MW/cycle. UkrTransgaz can also offer virtual transport to and from the borders with Poland and with Hungary and physical reverse flow to Slovakia, he said. 

He said the plants in aggregate can offer up to 260mn m³/day. In the recent past, this flexibility was used to supply gas to Gazprom's customers in Europe and this is still here for European consumers, he said. Gazprom no longer uses Ukraine's storage capacity and this year Ukraine has imported no Russian gas, he said.

He said that state-owned Naftogaz Ukrainy, owner of UkrTransgaz, typically went into winter with about 17bn m³ of storage inventory, leaving 14bn m³ space available for others. Following the terms of the third energy package, Naftogaz Ukrainy as a supplier would have to book capacity following a tender procedure. "It is not allowed to have preferential terms," he told NGE.

UkrTransgaz has adapted EU regulations on unbundling and has operational balancing agreements with its EU neighbours, and is working on a balancing network code of its own, NGE reported earlier. The rules of engagement will be the same in Ukraine as anywhere else in the EU, he told delegates. "We are not developing a special, Ukrainian version." That will foster a liquid hub, which would give Naftogaz Ukrainy a benchmark for negotiations on price. 

William Powell