Ukraine Still Injecting into Storage

Ukraine was still injecting gas into storage as late as October 30, data published by Gas Infrastructure Europe show. That was the latest day for which data is available. It held 227 TWh on that day, which is 71% of capacity.

It is almost a fifth of the 1,082 TWh stored in the European Union, and both figures are medium-term records, as the steady supply of cheap gas, delivered by pipe or as LNG to Europe, has encouraged higher injection rates into storage. Heavy injection flows were one of the bright spots for Hungary's MOL's downstream gas business, it reported October 31.

There is also the underlying fear that something will go wrong with Russian gas deliveries in January, when Gazprom's transit contract with Ukraine expires. Russia is seeking the cancellation of the $2.5bn damages awarded against it, while Ukraine is pulling what legal levers it can to extract money. Repeated trilateral meetings chaired by the European Commission have been fruitless. 

Gazprom this week had permission from the Danish authorities to lay the remaining section of Nord Stream 2, using the shorter of the two routes available to it. But pipelaying work can be slower in winter and the line has to be pressured up and commissioned. When operational it will carry 55bn m3/yr from Russia to northern Germany.