ExPro analyst says that Ukrainian gas reserves are at their lowest level in 12 years.

ExPro, an analysis firm, said that Ukraine's reserves of gas are the lowest they have been in 12 years. Storage facilities are currently less than one-third full.

This estimate comes after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy accused Moscow earlier of deliberately undermining Ukraine's winter preparations following a Russian attack on a gas plant in the southern Odesa Region.

ExPro reported on Wednesday that Ukraine had 10 billion cubic meters of gas stored underground as of August 5. One bcm was pumped into storage over the past 19 day. ExPro said that Ukraine needs to store around 13 billion cubic metres of gas for winter.

ExPro reported that Ukrainian storage facilities were 32.3% full. Reserves are down 9% compared to a year ago.

The impact of the Russian attack on Wednesday, when it targeted Odesa's interconnector gas pipeline, which supplies U.S. gas and Azeri via Bulgaria and Romania to Odesa, is still unclear.

After Russian missiles damaged the production facilities to the east of Ukraine, Ukraine was forced to increase gas imports and withdraw more gas from storage over the winter and spring.

According to the energy minister, Ukraine will need at least 4.6 billion cubic meters of gas in order to heat its homes during winter 2025/26. (Reporting and editing by Jan Harvey; Pavel Polityuk)

(source: Reuters)