Ukraine, European Storage Slows Down

Gas storage injections in Europe and Ukraine continued rising mid-September, but the rate is slowing, according to data published by Gas Infrastructure Europe. The latest figures from September 16 show Europe at 93.7% full and about 3 TWh less than at the same date last year, and Ukraine at 88% full, or about 78 TWh more than at the same date last year.

Much of the gas in Ukraine was injected on behalf of European shippers, meaning that there is a lot more gas available for Europe than a year ago. Ukraine has introduced favourable customs terms and transport tariffs to attract third-party gas.

In both cases the weekly rate is slowing down a little: Ukraine has slipped from about 10 TWh/week since the week starting August 12 to about 6 TWh/week, and Europe has slipped from about 15 TWh/week to about 12 TWh/week.

The difference in price between day-ahead delivery and Q1 2021 delivery is falling, making storage less attractive than a few weeks before: it was assessed at €3/MWh September 17, compared with €5.4/MWh August 24, at the Dutch title transfer facility. And as storage fills, the pressure rises and the injection rate may have slowed for that reason too.

Ukraine has benefited this year from the temporary easing of restrictions on reverse flow at the much larger Velke Kapuszany interconnection on the border with Slovakia. This was introduced to offset the effects of maintenance work on the pipeline on Ukrainian territory that leads to/from the Budince interconnection. But that will cease in October, according to Eustream, Slovakia's transmission system operator.