Gas reserves in Ukraine's storage facilities almost reach target level

As of September 15, gas reserves in Ukrainian underground storage facilties reached the level of 14.4 billion cubic meters, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced at a press conference on Friday, writes news agency Ukrinform.

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"As of today, 14.4 billion cubic meters of gas has been accumulated. This is already the level of last year's entry into the heating season," he said.

The average filling level of gas storage facilities at the beginning of the heating seasons from 2011 to 2019, inclusive, reached 17.9 billion cubic meters and the minimum decreased to 14.5 billion cubic meters in 2016. In 2020, at the beginning of the cold season, a decade-record 28.3 billion cubic meters of gas were accumulated in Ukrainian underground storage facilities.

In 2022, Ukraine entered the heating season with reserves of about 14.7 billion cubic meters of gas, during the winter 5.57 billion cubic meters were withdrawn from underground storage facilities.

At the beginning of the heating season of 2023-2024, the Cabinet of Ministers planned to reach the figure of 14.7 billion cubic meters of gas.

Shmyhal said that seven units of nuclear power plants are already working in the power system, and two more units are coming out of repairs, which will make it possible to accumulate coal for thermal generation. "Readiness in general for winter is now about 80%," Shmyhal noted.

He said that during the year, Ukraine worked out ways to protect critical infrastructure from Russian attacks in order to get through the upcoming fall-winter period.

An additional reserve will be the possibility of importing electricity from Europe. "Today, our physical import capacity is 1.2 GW. It can be physically increased to 2 GW," Shmyhal said. He believes that such volumes of available imports will allow Ukraine to pass the winter even in conditions of Russian terror.