KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine’s gas reserves are at their lowest in 12 years, with storage facilities currently less than a third full, analysis firm ExPro said on Wednesday.
The estimate comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy earlier accused Moscow of deliberately undermining its preparations for winter following a Russian strike on a gas facility in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region.
Ukraine had 10 billion cubic metres of gas in its underground storage facilities as of August 5, pumping one bcm of gas to storage in the past 19 days, ExPro said on Wednesday. Ukraine’s energy ministry has said the country needs around 13 bcm of gas in storage for the winter season.
Ukrainian storage facilities are 32.3% full, ExPro said, with reserves down 9% from a year earlier.
It is not yet clear how Wednesday’s Russian attack on the Odesa region’s gas interconnector, which is used to supply U.S. and Azeri gas via Bulgaria and Romania, will affect its future gas collection.
Ukraine had been forced to ramp up gas withdrawals from storage and increase imports over winter and spring after Russian missile attacks damaged production facilities in the east of the country.
The energy minister has said Ukraine had to import at least 4.6 bcm of gas for the 2025/26 winter heating season.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Jan Harvey)
