European traders continue to pump gas into Ukrainian underground storage facilities, indicating that Ukraine has successfully realised its potential to become a regional gas hub. This was underlined by Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko.

“We have great prospects. These are not just plans, this is reality. Today, European traders are already storing around 2 billion cubic metres of gas in our storage facilities, and we expect this to rise to 3 billion cubic metres by the beginning of winter,” he said, recalling that Ukraine was ready to offer foreign companies up to 15 billion cubic metres of its underground storage facilities.

The fullness of the underground gas storage facilities and the ability to supply gas to European countries during the winter are issues of national security for Ukraine, the Energy Minister added.

German Galushchenko stressed that in the midst of the war, Ukraine was not only successfully moving towards its goal of becoming a European gas hub, but was also increasing its own gas production capacity.

“We are increasing production even during the war. The goal is to fully meet consumption needs with domestically produced gas,” he said.