Gas reserves in Ukrainian UGS facilities have decreased by 8.2% – to 8.9 bcm since the end of 2024 – former Minister of Energy

Thus, taking into account the former Minister's previous information on Facebook, gas reserves in the UGS facilities have decreased by 8.2% since December 31 last year, from 9.7 billion cubic metres. Accordingly, as of January 4, 2025, the UGSF reserves amounted to 9.5 billion cubic metres and as of January 10 – 9.2 billion cubic metres.
According to her, as of the end of last week, these gas reserves included 4.1 bcm of long-term storage gas, including gas in the temporarily uncontrolled territories, as well as 0.6 bcm of active long-term storage gas, which was transferred to the buffer gas category.
According to her post, with the completion of Russian gas transit through Ukraine, there is a faster decline in European UGS reserves, which may intensify competition in the European and Asian markets in the summer of 2025 for spot volumes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to accumulate the mandatory volume of European UGS facilities as of November 1, 2025, at 90%. In particular, the loss of Ukrainian transit will lead to additional imports of more than 15 bcm of LNG to Europe per year.
In her Facebook post on December 31, the former Minister assessed the level of gas reserves in underground storage facilities at the end of last year as not critical for the passage of the winter heating season due to lower consumption. In particular, according to her estimates, the deficit of Naftogaz of Ukraine up to 1 bcm by the end of the autumn-winter period can be covered by purchasing gas on the Ukrainian Energy Exchange (UEEX) – as of December 1, 2024, gas reserves in the commercial segment amounted to 1.5 bcm.