OJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine increased natural gas production this year and intends to spend the winter with only Ukrainian gas, and also has a stock of gas purchased abroad with funds from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Chairman of the Board Oleksiy Chernyshov said on the sidelines of the 20th annual YES meetings organized by the Viktor Pinchuk Foundation in Kyiv.
“The so-called Emergency Credit Line has existed with the EBRD bank for several years. We use this Emergency Credit Line every year to create a certain reserve for possible scenarios, which we also calculate. This stock actually remains in the country’s customs warehouse and is not imported into the country,” he told reporters.
Chernyshov noted that for the company this is a normal technological procedure that it carries out every year, in particular, it was used a year ago.
“Last year we had EUR300 million (credit line of the EBRD – IF-U), this year – EUR200 billion, even less… All the needs of Ukrainian consumers are covered by Ukrainian gas,” the chairman of the board emphasized.
Commenting on the issue of the use of Ukrainian gas storage facilities (PSG) by foreign gas traders, Chernyshov stated that this year the dynamics are low.
“We would like much more, in some places traders even take something away. There are challenges that are obvious to everyone, so we are now mainly relying on our own (gas). And that’s what we planned,” he said.
The chairman of the board clarified that right now the dynamics are “lowly negative”, but it is necessary to sum up the results at the end of the year.
As reported, at the end of 2022, Naftogaz attracted an EBRD loan under state guarantees for EUR 300 million, thanks to which a natural gas reserve of 748 million cubic meters was created. m in the “customs warehouse” (MS) mode.
A new agreement on the EBRD loan to Naftogaz for EUR 200 million under state guarantees was signed in November 2023. Then it was noted that it will enter into force after the issuance of state guarantees. Norway and the Netherlands shared the credit risk with the bank.
The MS regime allows you to store natural gas in the PSG of Ukraine for three years without paying taxes and customs duties during its further transportation from the territory of the country.
