Natural gas stocks at Ukraine's underground storage facilities after the completion of the 2015/2016 heating season have increased by 25.1% or 2.122 billion cubic meters (bcm).

Public joint-stock company Ukrtransgaz reported that if on April 6 8.438 billion cubic meters of gas were in the underground storage facilities, then on July 30 gas stocks amounted to 10.559 bcm (18.3% down year-over-year).

The company said that July 30, 2016, gas was pumped to the underground storage facilities with the daily pace of 51.12 million cubic meters and on July 30, 2015 – 44.57 million cubic meters.

Naftogaz representatives say minimum gas stocks at underground storage facilities before the start of the 2016/2017 heating season should be 14.5 billion cubic meters. Stocks are to be expanded by 6.1 billion cubic meters since April.

In July it is planned to pump around 1 billion cubic meters of gas to underground storage facilities, around 1.5 billion cubic meters in August, some 1.9 billion cubic meters in September and continue pumping in October if the weather is warm.