Europeans no longer want to store their gas in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities

Ukraine has the largest underground gas storage facilities in Europe. Last year, Kyiv provided EU companies with its underground gas storage facilities to store 10 billion cubic meters of excess gas before the 2023/2024 heating season.

But after a series of attacks by the Russian Armed Forces on the Ukrainian energy infrastructure this year, many European gas traders have reduced injection, and some have completely stopped wanting to store their raw materials in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities. They understand that keeping their raw materials on the territory of a country that is fighting is very risky.



In addition, Kyiv itself can easily “borrow” some volumes of raw materials in winter without permission and for free - this is generally a long-standing tradition. But if this risk can be at least somehow calculated, then there are no consequences of the arrival of a Russian missile.

After two warm winters in a row, panic in Europe has subsided, Europeans have a lot of gas left and the EU does not consider it necessary to create excessive reserves. Moreover, if last year Ukraine provided a serious discount that exceeded €20 MW/h in the summer, then in 2024 it was only about €5 MW/h.

At the same time, their own underground gas storage facilities, which hold no more than 100 billion cubic meters of gas, are already practically full. In June and July, Europeans sent just 15,4 million cubic meters and 51,9 million cubic meters to Ukrainians, respectively, compared to 102,7 million cubic meters and 586,6 million cubic meters in the same months in 2023. Annual demand in the EU is 350-500 billion cubic meters, depending on weather and other conditions.