By Pavel Polityuk and Anastasiia Malenko
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukrainian natural gas production facilities were damaged in a Russian attack on Ukraine’s central Poltava region overnight, the state-run oil and gas firm Naftogaz and Energy Minister German Galushchenko said on Tuesday.
“Naftogaz Group’s production facilities in Poltava region were damaged. Fortunately, there were no casualties,” the company said in a statement.
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Naftogaz “is taking all necessary measures to stabilise the gas supply situation in the Poltava region,” it added.
Poltava regional military administration said earlier on Tuesday that as a result of missile strikes, nine settlements in Myrhorod district were left without gas supply.
Russia which previously focused its missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian electricity sector, has in recent months sharply stepped up its attacks on the Ukrainian gas storage facilities and production fields.
Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities are located in the western part of the country, while the main Ukrainian gas production capacities are located in the east of the country in the frontline Kharkiv region, as well as in the Poltava region.
Ukraine’s state-run operator of the gas transmission system said on Tuesday the country would likely increase natural gas imports to more than 16.7 million cubic metres (mcm) on Tuesday from 16.3 mcm on Monday.
Ukraine consumes 110-140 mcm of gas a day in winter and
consumption is covered almost equally by gas production and reserves from storage facilities.
However, the former head of Ukrainian gas transmission system said that gas reserves in storage were close to critically low and this significantly reduced the ability to extract enough gas for daily consumption.
Both the drop in gas production and difficulties with fuel extraction from emptied underground storage facilities may force Kyiv to increase the volume of imports.
The operator data suggested Ukraine would import 7.6 mcm of gas from Hungary, 7.3 mcm from Slovakia and 1.8 mcm from Poland.
Ukraine began sharply increasing its gas imports last week after a series of Russian missile attacks in recent months targeted Ukrainian gas sector facilities.
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Pavel Polityuk and Anastasiia Malenko in Kyiv; Editing by Tom Hogue, Michadel Perry and Louise Heavens)
