Ukraine will increase its natural gas imports by 8% to 26.7 million cubic metres (mcm) on Tuesday amid a sharp fall in temperature across the country, data provided by the operator of the state-run gas transmission system showed.
The volume of gas imports has increased almost tenfold since the start of February, after a series of Russian missile attacks targeted Ukraine’s gas sector facilities.
Temperatures across Ukraine have dropped to around minus 10 degrees Celsius (14 degrees Fahrenheit) in recent days, which analysts estimate could increase daily gas consumption by around a fifth.
The data suggested Ukraine would import 9.2 mcm of gas from Hungary on Tuesday, 15.7 mcm from Slovakia and 1.8 mcm from Poland.
A drop in gas production and difficulties with fuel extraction from emptied underground storage facilities have forced Kyiv to increase the volume of imports.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk; Editing by Kirsten Donovan)