Ukraine since the beginning of February 2018 has reduced imports of natural gas by 50% compared with January, and by 66.7% from Slovakia, according to data of PJSC Ukrtransgaz.

According to the calculations of Interfax-Ukraine, if during January the average daily import from Europe amounted to 25.856 million cubic meters, then on February 1-3 it fell to 12.513 million cubic meters. In particular, gas imports from Slovakia fell by 66.7%, from 19.248 million cubic meters per day in January to 6.313 million cubic meters per day for the first three days of February.

According to the Slovak gas transportation operator Eustream, the application for gas supply to Ukraine on February 4-5 is also 6.304 million cubic meters per day, which indicates the intention of Naftogaz Ukrainy, which imports gas in this direction, to maintain such volumes of supply by the end of the month.

It should be noted that gas reserves in Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities (UGS) as of February 3 of this year amounted to 12.269 billion cubic meters, while at the same date in 2017 the reserves were 9.639 billion cubic meters, in 2016 some 10.95 billion cubic meters, in 2015 some 9.171 billion cubic meters. Thus, gas reserves in Ukrainian UGS on February 3, 2018 were 27.3%, 12% and 33.8% more than for similar dates in 2017, 2016 and 2015 respectively.

Daily gas taking from UGS in Ukraine is possible in the amount of about 1% of the total reserves. Thus, the existing reserves allow withdrawing from the storage facilities during February up to 100-120 million cubic meters per day.