Foreign companies are again using underground gas storage (UGS) facilities in Ukraine, despite the war, although the volumes of such storage are still small due to gas shortages in Europe, Yuriy Vitrenko, Board Chairman of NJSC Naftogaz Ukrainy, has said.

"There are already foreign companies that, starting from April, under the conditions of war, still take risks and store gas in our storage facilities," he said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

The Naftogaz head recalled that in the first month of the war, Ukraine suspended such an opportunity, but then reopened storage facilities for nonresidents.

"So far, there are relatively small [volumes of storage by nonresidents]. The question is simply that there is a certain shortage of gas in Europe," Vitrenko explained.

According to him, this trust is due to the fact that Ukraine is a reliable partner, unlike Russia.

"We just had a meeting of world economic leaders, they discussed energy security, and the Polish Minister of Energy, Anna Moskwa, says bluntly: look, we had contracts, Bulgaria had contracts, but the Russians simply do not fulfill them. Therefore, it is not worth taking into account any agreements and papers signed by Russia, unlike the agreements with Ukraine," the Naftogaz Board Chairman said.

As reported, Ukraine actively offers European companies to use Ukrainian UGS facilities. The customs warehouse regime allows natural gas to be stored in UGS facilities in Ukraine for three years without paying taxes and customs duties during its further transportation from the country.

In January of this year, gas storage operator Ukrtransgaz, a subsidiary of Naftogaz, indicated that the number of nonresident companies in its customer portfolio had grown 8 times over the past three years to 111 companies representing 27 countries from three continents: Europe, North America and Asia.