Ukraine Storage Above 'Safety Threshhold'

Ukraine's storage facilities held 208.22 TWh of gas as of October 1 and filling up at the rate of above 600 GWh/d for some weeks, according to the latest Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data. That equates to 20.35bn (Russian) m³, compared with the 20bn m³ that the state monopoly Naftogaz Ukrainy says is the minimum needed to ensure stable gas supplies through winter. The facilities are now 67.6% full, compared with 52.5% on the same date last year, according to GIE.

The country has been injecting gas for some third parties but it has not said how much. Gas prices are much lower this summer than last summer, encouraging injection. There is a perceived risk to Russian gas transit across Ukraine from January 1 onwards, for which so far no contract has been agreed.

However, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, reportedly said at a Moscow energy conference October 2 that Gazprom would be willing to book capacity from January, either by extending the existing contract it has, or by using the European Union rule book, if Ukraine separates its transport business from its supply business as planned this year. He said that did not look likely however.

Gazprom has still not had permission from the Danish government to build Nord Stream 2 across its exclusive economic zone, which would allow another 55bn m³/yr to be delivered to Germany directly from Russia. Gazprom has submitted several alternative routes.

But Gazprom's board chairman Viktor Zubkov said that if the company wanted to, it could complete Nord Stream 2 by November, according to Radio Free Europe citing various media reports from the event. So far, 2,042 km of Nord Stream 2, or 83% of its total length, have been laid.

Russian cubic metres contain less energy than standard cubic metres, owing to differences in temperature at measurement.