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(Reuters) – Ukraine called on its allies on Wednesday to help it import more natural gas as it moved to increase gas imports by a third to 22.6 million cubic meters following a series of Russian missile attacks on Ukrainian gas facilities.
The call came after natural gas production sites owned by Ukraine’s state-run energy firm Naftogaz were damaged in a Russian strike on the central Poltava region on Tuesday, the company said.
“These attacks on gas production and underground storage facilities create a certain pressure, and we obviously need additional assistance from international partners in importing additional volumes of gas,” Deputy Energy Minister Roman Andarak said in televised comments.
Russia, which has previously focused its missile and drone attacks on the Ukrainian electricity sector, has in recent months sharply stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian gas storage facilities and production fields.
Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities are located in the west of the country, while the main production capacity is in the east, in the frontline Kharkiv region, as well as in the Poltava region.
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. Ukraine mainly uses gas to heat homes and for cooking.
On Wednesday morning, the temperature in most regions of Ukraine was minus 10 degrees Celsius (14°F) and gas consumption, according to analysts’ estimates, may rise to 150 million cubic metres.
Data provided by the operator of the gas transmission system showed that Ukraine would import 8.6 mcm of gas from Hungary, 12.2 mcm from Slovakia and 1.8 mcm from Poland.
Ukraine, which has not bought Russian gas since 2015, imports gas from the EU, but President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week the country was willing to store liquefied natural gas from the United States in its underground storage facilities.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited Kyiv on Wednesday to discuss a critical minerals deal and energy issues as Ukraine struggles to secure the backing of U.S. President Donald Trump at a perilous diplomatic juncture in the war.
Additianal reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Tomasz Janowski, Tom Balmforth and Gareth Jones
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