The reality of the gas market in recent months demonstrates a steady trend of reducing volumes of imported gas with a simultaneous increase in domestic production. Experts are not confident that this trend can become a pattern.
As reported by the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, gas production in January grew by 3.5% - from 1.705 billion cubic meters to 1.76 billion cubic meters, and its withdrawal from underground storage facilities decreased by 4.2% - from 3.7 to 3.54 billion cubic meters. In the import of natural gas, a decrease in the volumes of supplied gas was also observed, from 5.75 to 4.25 billion cubic meters, that is, by 1.5 billion cubic meters of natural gas.
As reported, in November 2004 gas imports decreased by 12% compared to November 2003 from 5.18 billion cubic meters to 4.56 billion cubic meters. And in December 2004, gas imports to Ukraine decreased by another 3.3% compared to December 2003 from 5.39 billion cubic meters to 5.21 billion cubic meters. According to the Ministry of Fuel and Energy, in December 2004 the company "Gazprom" (Russia) supplied 2.539 billion cubic meters of gas to Ukraine, gas imports from Central Asian countries amounted to 2.663 billion, and 0.011 billion cubic meters were supplied by other companies.
Experts note the trend of reducing gas imports at the end of the year while maintaining steady growth of imports based on the results of the entire year. Thus in 2004 gas imports increased by 11.8% compared to 2003 to 68 billion cubic meters, and a year earlier - in 2003 it also increased, but by 7.6% compared to 2002 to 60.8 billion cubic meters.
An interesting fact, in 2000, during the premiership of Viktor Yushchenko, Ukraine reduced natural gas imports by a quarter. At that moment, in the volume of Russian imports to Ukraine, gas accounted for 38.5%.