European countries and Ukraine are actively increasing imports of Russian gas in anticipation of a new transit crisis that could erupt from the beginning of June. According to live data from the Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel Energy Complex of Russia, Russian gas exports for the first five days of May increased compared to comparable days last year by 16%.
If the current rate is kept, the May exports could grow by more than 10%. At the same time, the basis for comparison cannot be called weak: Europe met the last season of gas pumping with extremely exhausted storage facilities and during the entire spring and summer season actively restored stocks in underground storage facilities – in May 2013 exports showed a 10% growth.
And although this season Europe had much more solid residues in underground storage facilities (twice higher than a year ago), in April and May 2014 the activity of gas pumping into underground gas storage facilities is almost 1.5 times higher than a year ago.
Naftogaz Ukrainy from April 18 consumes more than 100 million cubic meters of imported gas. If gas taking remains at the current level, in May Naftogaz will take 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas worth $1.7 billion (based on the price of $485.5 per 1,000 cubic meters).
