Slovakia begins reverse flow natural gas delivery into Ukraine

The first commercial natural gas flows imported into Ukraine via Slovakia began on Monday, with 8 million cubic metres (mcm) passing through the connection by 15:00 local time, according to data from Slovak grid operator Eustream.

The pipe, which is known as the Vojany pipeline or the Budince nomination point, will initially have a daily interruptible capacity of 280.8GWh/day – equal to 26mcm/day. Over the coming months the amount of capacity that is available on a firm basis will increase, so that by March next year the entire 26mcm/day will be firm.

Data from Slovak system operator Eustream shows that for September all the capacity has been booked, and this will broadly remain the case through to 2019.

Up to now, Ukraine has only been importing gas from Europe in reverse flow via Hungary and Poland, having cut import ties with Russia in mid-June. Ukrtransgaz does still transit Russian volumes onward to Europe, however.

Meanwhile, westward flow of Russian gas through Ukraine remained at lower levels throughout the past week, with an average of only 62mcm/day delivered to Europe via the Velke Kapusany entry point into Slovakia. This is 3mcm/day lower than the previous week’s daily average.

Storage

Ukrainian natural gas storage stocks continued to climb higher over the six days to 30 August, the latest data from system operator Ukrtransgaz showed on Monday.

On Saturday, stocks were at 50.7% of total capacity, up 0.4 percentage points compared to levels on 24 August.

Gas in store climbed by 130mcm week on week, which was roughly half the amount placed in reserve the previous week. As a result, Ukraine’s 12 storage facilities under Ukrtransgaz control now hold 15.7 billion cubic metres (bcm) of a possible 30.95bcm.

The notional minimum level of gas required in Ukrainian storage to ensure there is enough pressure to secure transit of Russian gas to Europe at the start of the winter season is understood to be 18-19bcm. Miriam Siers