Indeed, Ukraine now offers a customs warehouse mode – which provides storage for up to 3 years without incurring customs duties – as well as short-haul transmission, which entails gas transmission from cross-border entry points to the storage facilities themselves.
This puts Ukraine, with its vast storage capacity, into a unique position to be Europe’s reserves hub – as long the country builds on the latest transformations and modernizes its infrastructure.
Ukrainian payers are interested in storing reserves to secure gas supplies for households (and hedge against sharp market turns in price), while traders can use them both for storage and to wait for better market conditions – allowing them to see gas at a higher price.