Naftogaz CEO says company has resource for power generation

MOSCOW. July 24 (Interfax) - Naftogaz of Ukraine will be able to fully meet the gas demands for power generation throughout the 2024-2025 heating season taking into account the pace of restoration of damaged power units at thermal power plants and the connection of new power generating facilities, Naftogaz CEO Alexei Chernyshov said.

"We know what approximate capacity we will have to provide, it is our workings. I cannot name these numbers now, because this parameter is gradually increasing. But we have volumes with a substantial reserve to respond to these challenges. We see how many power plants are being connected now, we see how many technical conditions we are issuing, and we're meeting these additional demands more than sufficiently," he told Ukrainian reporters on the sidelines of the NV Dialogues - The Future of Ukrainian Energy event in Kiev on Tuesday.

At the same time, the amount of gas unused due to the damage and halt of operations of power units of thermal power plants will exceed the amount of gas needed for a new generation, Chernyshov said.

"This is an equation [providing gas for power generation] whose solution is linked to two factors. The first one is what volume is required for a new generation. And the second one is what volume will be freed because not all thermal generation is restored. I believe the second parameter will definitely be bigger than the first one," he said.

As reported, as of July 22, 2024, Ukraine has natural gas reserves totaling ten billion cubic meters in its underground storage facilities. The country pumped over 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas since the start of the season on April 1.

"The accumulation rate enables us to optimistically forecast the implementation of the plan, namely 13.2 billion cubic meters before November 1," Chernyshov said.

Ukraine started November 2023 with reserves totaling 16 billion cubic meters of gas in underground gas storage facilities. A total of 8.5 billion of cubic meters of natural gas were selected from storage facilities in the 2023-2024 heating season, of them, 6.7 billion cubic meters were used. The selection season lasted 145 days in total.