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Ukraine able to stock enough gas for winter without imports from Russia: minister

Xinhua, September 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ukraine would be able to boost its stocks ahead of the upcoming cold winter season without natural gas imports from Russia, Ukrainian Energy and Coal Minister Igor Nasalyk said here Monday.

"Ukraine can increase the volumes of gas in the underground storage facilities to 17 billion cubic meters exclusively through imports from Europe," Nasalyk told reporters.

He said that Ukraine could completely cover its winter gas needs with supplies from Hungary and Poland.

On Sept. 2, Maros Sefcovic, vice-president of the European Commission in charge of the Energy Union, urged Ukraine to boost its gas stocks to 17 billion cubic meters to smoothly run through the cold winter season.

Later this month, Andriy Kobolev, the chairman of Ukraine's state-run energy firm Naftogaz, said that Kiev will not be able to pump the requested amount of gas into the underground reservoirs without purchasing the fuel from Russia.

Ukraine, which consumed 16.4 billion cubic meters of gas during the previous cold heating season, has accumulated 13.6 billion cubic meters of gas in its storage facilities as of Sept. 17.

Gas supplies from Russia to Ukraine have been suspended since November 2015, as the two countries failed to reach an agreement on pricing. Endi