European gas traders held a meeting on Wednesday (27 March) with Ukraine’s gas network (GTSOU) and storage system (Ukrtransgaz) operators, together with the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy and National Energy Regulator, to discuss gas storage opportunities in Ukraine in the upcoming 2024/2025 winter season.
The meeting took place following Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure earlier this week, including the storage system. The participants welcomed the minimal effect it had on the resilience of its system to deliver services, the meeting’s host Energy Community Secretariat (ECS) noted in a press release.
Ukraine’s gas storage infrastructure damaged by Russian missile
“-The storage system of Ukraine, in spite of the recent attacks, demonstrated its resilience. The Secretariat invites Ukraine to further explore and implement risk mitigation measures to allow a more substantial usage of the storages by European traders in the next winter season,” said Energy Community Secretariat’s Director Artur Lorkowski.
Ukrtransgaz presented its efforts to broaden the storage products and storage services and shape them as shippers-friendly, in a bid to increase the volumes of gas stored in Ukraine. The Secretariat recently published a positive assessment note on the draft amendments to Ukraine’s storage code.
Ukraine, together with the Energy Community and other international partners is performing a technical-based stress test, exploring extreme scenarios for risks of foreign traders’ gas evacuation in the next season.
The stress test’s preliminary results initially show the technical resilience of the transmission and storage system to inject and withdraw cca 5 bcm of EU traders’ gas in the next winter season.
Shippers welcomed the ECS’s invitation to return to a competitive market in Ukraine and agreed on all actions identified in the ECA’s high-level assessment of the need for gas market reforms.
Addressing risk insurance, the abolishment of the gas export ban, ensuring more transparency, implementing energy units, and addressing rising costs of shipping gas from the west and south to Ukraine were among the main topics raised by the shipper.
