Damage to Naftogaz facilities: How will this affect gas supplies to Ukrainians?

Naftogaz group continues to provide stable gas supplies to Ukrainians after the bombing of the infrastructure of one of Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities on the night of March 24. The head of the Naftogaz group, Alexey Chernyshov, announced this on his Facebook page.

“Currently, work is continuing on localization and elimination of consequences in accordance with PLAS scenarios – Emergency Localization and Elimination Plan. There are no critical consequences for ensuring the operation of the underground gas storage facility, as the gas is located in a significant area.” depth… Restoration of the damaged part of the ground infrastructure will be required, but we have sufficient reserve capacity,” Chernyshov said.

According to him, the attack will not affect the supply of blue fuel to Ukrainian consumers. Storage and capacity reservation services for customers continue to be fully provided.

“The situation is under the control of our experts and all relevant services,” added the chairman of the board of directors of NAC Naftogaz.

Important

Fire at Naftogaz gas storage facility: what is known

As a result of enemy bombardment on the night of March 24, the ground infrastructure of one of Naftogaz’s underground storage facilities was damaged. in the western region, but the extent of damage is still unknown.

Roman Nitsovich, Research Director of the DiXi Group analytical center, comments Focus He claimed that the damage to Naftogaz Group’s facilities in the west of the country was quite serious.

“We can only act on what has been said at the official level. At the same time, it seems to me that the damage is quite serious, since the fire at the facility was extinguished only in the evening of the same day. It lasted quite a long time, we know that there was a second missile attack on the Kinzhal facility, so the firefighters had to take a break to eliminate the consequences had to, we don’t know how serious the second attack was, but if we talk about the gas storage facility, we need to understand that there are hundreds of production wells there, so I’m not sure if they hit the wells, maybe other facilities where gas is prepared and accounted for, but for now I suggest waiting for restoration work there There are official reports about how long it will take. At the same time, we see reports from Naftogaz that “this does not affect the functioning of the gas transportation system,” the expert said.

How will damage to Naftogaz capacity affect European buyers?

According to the head of the Naftogaz group, although the penetration into the underground infrastructure of one of the underground gas storage facilities does not entail critical consequences for ensuring the operation of underground gas storage facilities and does not affect the supply of blue fuel to Ukraine, for consumers this is a strong signal to European partners, because the Russians only Ukrainian It hit not only Turkey’s gas security, but also the EU.

“As for the capabilities of customers of gas storage services, let’s wait. So far there is a message that this will not affect this opportunity. At the same time, it seems to me that this is a very important signal, primarily to European companies.” Despite all the efforts to reassure our European partners that our storage facilities are reliable and will allow us to do this even in war conditions, such attacks still carry certain risks. It seems to me that this is not a blow, Nitsovich, but not only to the gas security of Ukraine , he added, is also aimed at the security of Europe, so the response to such attacks must be quite harsh, at least in terms of the European market and the EU as a whole.

Expert Yuriy Korolchuk from the Energy Research Institute suggested that we are talking about fires of large volumes of underground gas storage in the west of the country and damage to one of the gas exchange points of Ukrtransgaz.

“In fact, this is the basis of underground storage facilities in Ukraine. Most likely, we can talk about the damage and elevation of the gas exchange point of Ukrtransgaz, which is responsible for pumping gas. Most likely, this was a blow in the region.” environment of the gas exchange point. How important is it? Nothing is unimportant. I will say that this is not a simple problem. In the absence of official details about the damage, it can be assumed that consumers will be able to sense the gas exchange point. “The consequences will appear next winter. But in general, the problem will worsen in June-July 2024, when the active phase of gas injection begins,” the expert said.

He added that the facilities damaged as a result of the attacks of the Russian Armed Forces will need to be repaired quickly, otherwise the gas injection rate will decrease and, accordingly, less gas may enter the underground storage facilities.

“The problem is that if we cannot fix this point, we will have to reduce gas production. I am not ready to say today exactly what the volume of production reduction will be, but I will assume it will be up to 30 percent.” %.

If the situation worsens and the plant cannot be repaired before the start of the heating season, injection will continue at current capacity and, accordingly, it will not be possible to pump the required amount of gas. This will leave us with a small amount of gas in underground storage facilities in the winter,” added Yuri Korolchuk.

Following the emergency, the warranty issue will arise for European partners.

“If everything is restored, nothing should change, but everything will depend on how the repair work progresses. I think the blow to this point was dealt deliberately. “So this can be considered a signal for European traders,” he added.

Let us remind you that the Russian Armed Forces attacked the Lviv region on the morning of March 24. Invaders hit the same critical infrastructure facility three times in just a few hours. At first they attacked with unmanned aerial vehicles, then they used Kinzhal missiles. Firefighters who tried to extinguish the fire that broke out in the previous attack were warned in time and managed to move to a safe place.

Previously Focus Referring to the statement made by the Ukrainian Naftogaz company, he wrote that in the entire history of Ukraine’s independence, the winter of 2023-2024 is the first winter in which the country uses its own gas. According to experts, 12.3 million consumers continue to buy gas.

“Overall, the average inventory level today is about the same as it was three to four years ago,” he said earlier. Focus Vladimir Omelchenko, Director of Energy Programs of the Razumkov Center.