Ukraine has no plans to prohibit export of gas of nonresidents from UGS facilities – Naftogaz head

KYIV. Oct 18 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Ukraine does not intend to prohibit the export of natural gas by nonresidents from Ukrainian underground gas storage (UGS) facilities, Chairman of the Board of Naftogaz Ukrainy Yuriy Vitrenko has said.

"Putin says that a large share of gas in our UGS facilities belongs to foreign companies, they want to take it away, and we want to nationalize this gas from them. Yes, European companies store gas in our underground gas storage facilities, because they believe Ukraine and do not believe Russian propaganda. But these volumes make up 10-15% of the total. European companies can sell this gas in Ukraine, if there is demand for it here at the current market price. But even if it is taken out, nothing critical will happen, we will have enough gas," he wrote on his Facebook page on Monday.

Vitrenko also denied the traditional statement from the President of the Russian Federation about the unreliability of the gas transmission system (GTS) of Ukraine.

"Russia has been promoting this story for several years, but it is completely untrue. The state of the GTS is regularly checked. Last year, the Ukrainian GTS pumped over 60 billion cubic meters of gas without any problems and did not burst, no matter how much Putin wanted. It can transport much more without any problems. And we have not one pipe on our main routes, but several (up to five) and therefore there is a reserve, unlike the same Nord Stream, where there are no reserve pipes. We can even carry out repairs without stopping the entire pipeline," Vitrenko said.