INTERVIEW: Wartime experience bolsters Ukraine's winter gas prep, says Naftogaz acting CEO

Lessons learned over the last four-plus years of war have helped Ukraine maintain robust natural gas preparations for the coming winter, despite persistent Russian strikes on energy assets that point to what may be the war-torn country's toughest heating season yet, Serhiy Fedorenko, acting CEO of state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz, told Platts, part of S&P Global Energy, in an interview July 29.

Ukraine is well on track to meet its target of stocking 14.6 billion cubic meters of gas by winter, with storage filled to about 13.1 Bcm as of Aug. 1, according to data compiled by S&P Global Energy CERA. This includes cushion gas required to run the sites, estimated at about 4-5 Bcm. By the same time last year, Ukraine had only 9.6 Bcm of gas in storage, according to CERA.

Working Ukrainian gas stocks totaled 94.2 terawatt-hours (8.9 Bcm), or 29.4% of the country's overall capacity, according to the latest figures from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

Fedorenko, who took on the leadership role in July after the company's previous CEO, Serhiy Koretsky, became Ukraine's prime minister, declined to comment on specific production figures for security reasons, offering only that Naftogaz brought 140 new gas wells online in 2025.

Meanwhile, imports are down significantly compared with the same period last year. While Ukraine took in a net average of 13.2 million cubic meters/day of gas across the second quarter of 2025, net imports during the same quarter this year averaged just 800,000 cubic meters/day, CERA data showed. Net average imports so far in the third quarter of 2026 are also well below 2025 levels: 1.4 MMcm/day, compared with 23.3 MMcm/day a year earlier.

'Every day we have one to three attacks'

The preparations come amid a growing number of Russian strikes on the state energy company's facilities. Naftogaz said it had faced 279 attacks in 2026 as of July 28, compared with 229 across all of 2025.

"Every day we have one to three attacks," Fedorenko said.

The count covers all Naftogaz sites, not just gas facilities. This year, the company has also faced a new focus on its fuel retail stations, according to the acting CEO.

"We are not keeping big volumes of oil, big volumes of oil products in Ukraine because of the military threats," Fedorenko added.

Even though CERA data showed that Ukraine's gas stocks are higher than in recent years, Fedorenko discounted the prospect of sending some volumes to other countries in the coming months. Kyiv has banned gas exports since 2022, and the acting CEO said he does not support a near-term change, as future attacks could deal a substantial blow to production as colder temperatures approach.

That conservative approach extends to finances as well. Naftogaz is readying for winter, assuming a "worst-case scenario," Fedorenko said. While Ukraine has received support from other countries, Naftogaz still has to fill a financing shortfall of "hundreds of millions of Euros" under that outlook, he added, though the situation is evolving daily.

Nevertheless, he expressed confidence as the colder months approach.

"It will be a very tough fight — very tough, even tougher than previous [winters]," Fedorenko said. "But we will win."

European gas prices have remained near recent highs amid sustained supply disruptions driven by the conflict in the Middle East. Platts assessed the month-ahead Dutch TTF gas index at €58.49/megawatt-hour on July 31.

LNG ambitions

Beyond its near-term efforts, Naftogaz is also looking to expand its LNG activity through traders and direct deals with exporters.

In the "midterm," the company expects to build an LNG portfolio of up to 2 Bcm/year, Fedorenko said. For the next two or so years, Naftogaz is focused on supplying Ukraine, but this could change further down the line as its strategy evolves, he added.

"If we are going into some long-term [LNG] contracts, we should be flexible and be aware of how we should use this gas not only in Ukraine," Fedorenko said.

As the company builds this portfolio, its primary focus is on US exporters.

"Our midterm goal is to rely on direct contracts with all the current and future biggest suppliers of US LNG," he said.

Ukraine's energy ministry said July 25 that the country is also engaged in intergovernmental discussions with Canada about sourcing Canadian LNG for Ukraine.

Asked whether he was concerned that boosting Ukraine's imports of the super-chilled fuel could make the LNG tankers involved in the trade targets for further attacks, Fedorenko offered a sobering assessment: given the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, oil and gas companies should now view all their assets as potential targets.