Ukraine Sees Gas Demand Down 21% in 2015

Ukraine’s gas demand fell by an average 21% last year across all categories of consumer, down to 33.8bn m³, from 2014, Naftogaz Ukrainy said February 2. The regulated segment which includes households and district heating companies saw demand fall from 22.1bn m³ to 17.2bn m³; while industrial demand fell from 14.4bn m³ to 11.2bn m³ – or down by 22% in both cases.

The biggest percentage drops in regional demand were seen in the war-torn east of the country: the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which recorded drops of 46% and 67% respectively.

In 2015, only the Odessa region saw an increase in demand, of just 4%, which the company was said was due to the start up of a factory at the port. As elsewhere in the country, Odessa's domestic consumers used less gas.

Ukrtransgaz worked a bit harder, transporting 4.9bn m³, or 8%, more gas from Russia to Gazprom’s clients in Europe and Moldova – a total of 67.1bn m³ in 2015. But with less gas overall to transport, it used less gas to run the network, including compressor stations, down from 3.6bn m³ to 3.3bn m³. There was no figure given for unaccounted for gas – or gas lost in transmission.

The figures for the country as a whole in 2014 were negligibly higher on a like-for-like basis as they included Crimean demand for the first few months of that year, which was 0.3bn m³.

William Powell