Ukrainian gas sector results (1st quarter of 2019)

According to the results of the 1stquarter of 2019, the volume of natural gas production by Ukrainian enterprises amounted to 5273 billion cubic meters. Gas production increased by 3% compared to the same period of the previous year. In March 2019, companies produced 1815 billion cubic meters of which 1326 billion cubic meters were produced by SOE Ukrgazvudobuvannya and 0.1 billion cubic meters were produced by Ukrnafta.

Gas imports during 3 months amounted to 1548 billion cubic meters (by 14% less compared to the 1stquarter of 2018). The largest volumes of gas were from Slovakia – 61% (0.951 billion cubic meters), 20% were imported from Hungary (0.310 billion cubic meters), from Poland – 19% (0.287 billion cubic meters). It is also important that in February and March the gas was imported actively compared to January, by 2.5 times more. Such a growth is explained by warm February and March and large gas reserves in European UGSFs, as the result the price of gas has fallen at the European hubs.

During the heating season 2018-2019, gas pumping from UGSFs was 5.1 billion cubic meters, which is 28% less compared to the previous heating season (2 billion cubic meters).  As of March, 31, 8779 billion cubic meters of gas are stored in UGSFs, which is 14% more than last year.

In the 1stquarter of this year, gas transit by main gas pipelines of Ukraine increased by 4% (0.9 billion cubic meters) and reached 21.2 billion cubic meters. The largest volume of gas transit to the European partners was in January – 7610 billion cubic meters. In February and March the transit was 6219 and 7182 billion cubic meters, respectively.