Ukraine's underground storages operate reliably even under conditions of shelling and transit termination

Ukraine’s underground storages are able to reliably and efficiently provide gas storage services to foreign energy companies even under conditions of shelling and transit termination. Ukrtransgaz, a company of the Naftogaz Group, presented plans for an upcoming injection season, the advantages of Ukraine’s gas storages and a tariff policy for the next year.

This was discussed at the Shippers meeting, an annual joint meeting of Ukrtransgaz, the storage system operator, which is part of the Naftogaz Group, and Gas TSO of Ukraine with more than 50 representatives of foreign energy companies in Vienna, Austria. This year's Shippers meeting is supported by the Energy Community Secretariat.

“The reliability of Ukraine’s UGS has been confirmed by both independent stress tests and real practice. We continue to fulfill all our obligations in good faith, proving the reliability of our specialists and infrastructure in practice. Moreover, we do not stop and are constantly developing. Security measures are permanently enhancing, and the personnel are being trained,” said Roman Maliutin, CEO of Ukrtransgaz.

An example of this is 2014 and 2022, when the company lost control over 2 gas storages. Even under such conditions, Ukraine’s UGS did not declare force majeure, and all obligations were fulfilled in full.

Last year, an independent technical examination confirmed the reliability of Ukraine’s UGS, even in the face of enemy attacks on our gas infrastructure.

This year, together with the GTSOU, the company is conducting analogous tests at the initiative of the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine under the auspices of the Energy Community Secretariat and with the support of the USAID Energy Security Project. The results will be made public in April.

Ukraine is planning changes to the Gas Storage Code that will significantly improve the work of companies working with Ukrtransgaz. The draft amendments have been positively assessed by the Energy Community.

Ukraine’s UGS also offer attractive and competitive tariffs to their partners, which will remain unchanged until April 1, 2025.

We would also like to remind you that in February, The Economist published an article stating that in 2023, European traders managed to earn about $320 million thanks to gas storage in Ukraine’s UGS.