In addition to Ukrgasvydobuvannya’s commissioning of 86 new wells in 2023, Prime Minister Denis Shmygal noted that Ukraine was able to spend the winter with its own gas due to the reduced gas consumption of production enterprises.
Ukraine continues to meet the natural gas needs of the public and industry during the heating season with a resource extracted in the country. Thus, the country is approaching energy independence. Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal said this at a press conference on March 4.
Own gas heating season: what factors contributed to Ukraine?
As Denis Shmygal explains, Ukrgazvydobuvannya, a structural division of Naftogaz, drilled 86 new wells in 2023, some of which are very powerful.
“The second parameter, unfortunately, is the loss of land along with large industrial enterprises, that is, the loss of industrial consumption,” he said.
The Prime Minister also noted that public gas consumption in Ukraine remains at the same level. However, gas demand was fully met.
“The consumption of the population remained at almost the same level and, accordingly, it was fully covered by Naftogaz. In addition, all the needs of the Ukrainian industry and the Ukrainian business world were met during this period,” the Prime Minister emphasized.
By the way, previously Naftogaz chairman Alexey Chernyshev gave information about gas production in Ukraine. Thus, according to him, 13.3 billion cubic meters of gas were produced in Ukraine in 2023; This is 6% more than in 2022.
“In 2023, we managed to significantly increase gas production, especially by the Ukrgasvydobuvannya enterprise. This growth allowed us to announce the figure of 13.3 billion cubic meters of commercial gas,” he said.
As Chernyshov said, by 2024 the company plans to reach the gas production level of 15 billion cubic meters.
Let us remind you that the agreement, which provides for the transportation of Russian gas from Ukrainian territory to European Union countries, will expire on December 31, 2024. However, while Ukraine can extend gas transit from the Russian Federation if requested by EU countries, the Ukrainian government does not want to extend the current contract or sign a new contract with Russian Gazprom.
We also recall that, according to Energy Minister German Galushchenko, Ukraine plans to abandon gas imports. As the Minister noted, Ukraine has been increasing its gas production since 2015.
Source: Focus
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