Gas imports to Ukraine have fallen to their lowest level in more than a year

The volume of natural gas imports into Ukraine dropped sharply at the start of April, falling to 0.8 million cubic meters per day — the lowest level since January 2025.

This was reported by ExPro.

Compared with the previous day, gas imports fell by more than 30 times — from 24 million cubic meters on March 31 to 0.8 million cubic meters on April 1.

The sharp reduction in gas imports from April was expected, the outlet notes. This is due to high natural gas prices in Europe, which throughout March remained higher than in Ukraine.

On average, gas in Europe (TTF) traded in March at €9/MWh higher than on the Ukrainian market.

European natural gas prices rose in early March after the start of the war in the Middle East. Given that the war is continuing and LNG supplies from Qatar and the UAE through the Strait of Hormuz are blocked, gas prices in Europe remain high.

Under such conditions, importing gas into Ukraine is expensive. At the same time, Ukraine can afford not to import gas in April, given that gas reserves in storage are higher than last year, ExPro explains.

“Ukraine completed the current gas withdrawal season from storage facilities on March 10, and this withdrawal season became one of the shortest in Ukrainian history. Gas reserves in storage amounted to 9.5 billion cubic meters, which is 1.6 times more than last year,” the publication says.

A small volume of gas imports into Ukraine remains in place in early April — 0.8 million cubic meters from Poland. The gas is being injected into the “customs warehouse” of Ukraine’s underground gas storage facilities. There are no imports from other directions.

It is expected that gas import volumes will remain low throughout April. Ukraine aims to accumulate at least 13 billion cubic meters of gas in underground storage by November 1, 2026, and this can be achieved even without imports.

However, for better preparation for winter, Ukraine needs to import certain volumes of natural gas — about 0.5 billion cubic meters before November 1. Gas imports will likely pick up again if prices at European hubs become more favorable, the publication says.