UPDATED: Ukraine breaks gas import records as storage injections soar

BUCHAREST (ICIS)–Gas exports from central Europe to Ukraine have reached record levels since the beginning of August as shippers ramped up injections into storage to all-time high levels.

Imports peaked at 107.2 million cubic metres/day on 2 August, according to Andrii Prokofiev head of division of cooperation with clients at transmission system operator GTSO.

Most volumes were imported from Slovakia, with the Budince interconnector flowing close to the maximum 42mcm/day of capacity. Another 43mcm/day has been virtually backhauled via the nearby Velke Kapusany interconnection point.

Volumes had been hovering around 72mcm/day in July, but with storage injections in full swing, companies have now ramped up exports from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Flows are set to remain high throughout August after the Ukrainian transmissions system operator decided to postpone maintenance works at Budince from 11 August to 1 September.

The planned outage on the interconnector will last until 22 September.

As of 4 August there were 22 billion cubic metres of gas in storage, 6.3bcm more than last year, which meant that storages were 71% full, according to latest data by the storage operator Ukrtransgaz.

A total of 5.3bcm were stored by non-resident companies under the customs warehouse regime, this allows them to inject and store gas without customs clearance for three years. Another 1.3bcm were also stored by resident companies in customs warehouse.

UTG said a record 68 non-resident companies were injecting gas in Ukrainian storages compared to 28 at the same time last year.

Speaking to ICIS, Prokofev said: “The Ukrainian gas market has become the safety valve of Europe and the latest record import levels are more than proving this. This is yet another example how free trading, EU market rules and ample storage capacity in Ukraine are offering excellent opportunities to European companies looking to store their volumes.

“We hope that in the future neighbouring market operators which are yet to apply EU market rules on the border with Ukraine will see the benefit of doing so without hesitation.”