Naftogaz stops taking gas out of storage, starts buying Russian gas again
Ukraine's Naftogaz has stopped taking gas out of underground storage facilities and has started buying Russian gas again as per the existing contract, Alexei Miller, CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom, told reporters.
Ukraine uses the gas that its pipelines receive to supply the industrial regions in the country's east, and it supplies gas to Europe from its huge underground storage facilities in the country's west.
Ukraine needs to keep substantial stocks of gas in its underground facilities in order to ensure the stable transit of Russian gas in the winter.
Gazprom estimates that Ukraine needs to have 21.5 bcm of gas in its storage facilities to ensure smooth transit, but it only has 17.6 bcm, at present.
Naftogaz stopped buying gas from Gazprom entirely on November 8, signifying that it had started to tap the gas it had stored, which was insufficient for the coming winter as it was.
On November 14, Gazprom urged Ukraine to look for a compromise and said it would be ready to make concessions itself, partly by granting more time to pay debt of $1.3 billion for gas.
The Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex (CDU TEK) says planned gas deliveries to Ukraine are 109.6 million cu m per day.
