Page 58 - UKRRptJun21

9.0 Industry & Sectors 9.1 Sector news
9.1.1 Oil & gas sector news
Europe’s gas storage is 31.3% full, near a record low for mid-May. Per data on the website of Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) and as shown in the chart below, current storage levels are well below a normal level of c46%, far below the 67% seen this time last year, and very close to the record low level of 30.6% seen in 2018.
In terms of volumes, current storage levels of c36bcm are c39bcm below the 75bcm of this time last year, and 17bcm below what would be expected in a ‘normal’ year.
A cold April exacerbates the effect of a cold winter in Asia and Europe. Last year European gas storage was at record highs following a large buildup in 2019 ahead of the expiration of the Russian-Ukrainian gas transit contract (which proved to be a non-event) and demand reductions from a record-warm winter in Europe and the COVID-19 crisis.
Spot gas prices in Europe fell below $1/mcf ($35/mcm) last summer, forcing US LNG suppliers to shut down production and handing Gazprom is worst quarter (2Q20) in over 15 years. The market situation in 2021 has so far been much more beneficial, first with an LNG shortage in January driven by very cold weather in Asia, then with Europe’s own blast of cold in February driving up domestic consumption, and now with an abnormally cold April delaying the onset of the gas refill season.
Energy storage systems in Ukraine can receive $300mn in revenues a year, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, chairman of Ukrenergo, predicted at a recent press conference, reports ExPro Consulting. Solar and wind power plant have production peaks and lows, necessitating storage systems to ‘balance’ electricity flows. DTEK is preparing to commission Ukraine’s first industrial power storage system, a 1 MW unit next to the Zaporizhia thermal power plant. Built by Sungrid, a Canadian company, the unit uses a lithium-ion energy storage system supplied by Honeywell.
Belarus is cutting off diesel deliveries to Ukraine. Serhii Kuyun, director of the A-95 consulting group, wrote on Facebook Friday that the cut off is starting. “The worst decision that Belarusians could have taken in the current situation is to close the supply of A-95 gasoline to Ukraine, where their product has 50% of the market,” he wrote, noting that Ukrainian drivers, truckers and farmers need 50,000 tons of this fuel monthly. The uncertain mood is captured in a UNIAN headline: “Fuel lesson from Belarus: should Ukrainian motorists to stock up on gasoline?”
The Head of Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, told western ambassadors on May 13 that a one-year contract with Yuriy Vitrenko as
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