Ukraine has started importing gas via Slovakia, former head of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine Sergey Makogon said, as reported by Ukrainian media.
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"Previous imports came from Hungary and Poland, yet the cheaper Hungarian line is busy, so suppliers have to pay for more expensive capacities of Slovakia," media quoted Makogon's statement on a social network.
Currently, Ukraine imports about 14.5 million cubic meters (mcm) of gas a day, while the amount should double or triple to accumulate 13.6 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas by November 1, Makogon said.
Slovakia has the highest import capacities of 42 mcm per day.
As reported earlier with the reference to Makogon, Ukraine needs to import at least 5 bcm of gas before November 1 in order to reach last year's target of gas reserves in underground storage facilities, which means about 870 mcm of gas to be imported every month or 29 mcm per day.
Importing the minimal amount of 5 bcm of gas would cost $2 billion to 2.5 billion, including $0.4 billion provided by donors earlier.
More contributions are possible, Makogon said.
He added that Ukraine could also use domestic resources, such as direct recapitalization of Naftogaz from the budget or offset debt payments.
As reported earlier with the reference to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), Ukraine shifted from taking gas from underground storage facilities to pumping gas in on April 17.
The reports said the gas-taking season began on November when underground facilities were storing 87.037 TW/h of gas (8.315 bcm) and ended on April 16 with 7.062 TW/h gas reserves (0.675 bcm), the all-times lowest amount.
GIE said that Ukraine ended this year's heating season with 2.22% of the maximum capacity of underground storage facilities filled, versus 11.12 TW/h of gas (3.388 bcm) stored on March 30, 2024, which was 11.12% of the facilities' capacity.
Former Energy Minister Olga Buslavets said for her part that gas reserves in Ukrainian underground storage facilities stood at 6.1 bcm at the end of last week (including 4.7 bcm of buffer gas), or 31% less as last year.
Over the past week, Ukraine's net gas imports (without short-haul) averaged 14.4 mcm per day (from Hungary and Poland), while daily consumption grew to 30 mcm or 33 mcm, which, according to the European platform Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI), allowed pumping in no more than 27 mcm of gas per day. ■