Against the backdrop of record-high stocks in underground gas storage and falling domestic demand, private traders have begun selling natural gas from Ukraine's underground storage facilities to European consumers. This is reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing data from the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E). According to the outlet, one private energy company shipped approximately 2 million cubic meters of gas to Poland between September 9 and 11, 2026, gas that is recorded in Ukraine's underground storage under a "customs warehouse" regime, with shipments continuing on a daily basis.
Surplus in Underground Storage and First Shipments to Poland
The market logic behind launching sales is straightforward: gas volumes in Ukraine's underground storage have exceeded planned levels, while domestic consumption has declined. As a result, a surplus has formed that companies find uneconomical to keep within the country. Selling excess volumes on the European market is one mechanism for balancing the domestic market and stabilizing the situation of resource overabundance. It is separately noted that the gas moved to Poland was under a "customs warehouse" regime, meaning it had effectively already been declared for transit or storage under a special customs status.
Price Gap as the Main Driver
The key incentive for traders has been the price gap: domestic natural gas prices in Ukraine are currently almost twice as low as European prices. This disparity makes it significantly harder to sell the resource within the country, making export to Europe an economically rational decision for private players. This is precisely why shipments to Poland are of a regular, daily nature rather than a one-off event.
Stocks Well Above the Critical Minimum
According to open data, gas stocks in Ukraine's underground storage have exceeded 15 billion cubic meters, which is more than sufficient to get through the heating season. For comparison: the Cabinet of Ministers previously stated that the "critically necessary minimum" for winter, based on past experience, is at least 13.2 billion cubic meters in underground storage. Thus, current stocks exceed the safety threshold with a comfortable margin, allowing surplus to be sold abroad without risk to winter supply.
Context of Bilateral Flows and Production Export
The situation should be viewed in the broader context of bilateral gas relations. Earlier, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski stated that Poland is preparing to supply Ukraine with additional volumes of gas, meaning flows between the two countries run in both directions. In parallel, the Cabinet of Ministers has discussed resuming exports of Ukrainian gas at up to 15% of production. These initiatives concern primarily the extracted resource and formalized export, whereas the described trader shipments are the sale of gas already accumulated in underground storage under a "customs warehouse" regime.
Contradictory Data
The public discourse features two, at first glance, diverging pictures. On the one hand, official statements (including from the Polish side) emphasize gas supplies into Ukraine and preparations to resume formalized export of the extracted resource at up to 15% of production. On the other hand, ENTSO-E data records actual shipments of gas out of Ukraine's underground storage to Poland by private traders. These versions do not mutually exclude each other: they concern different mechanisms (bilateral state/contractual flows versus the market sale of accumulated surplus) and different physical batches of gas (extracted versus stored under a "customs warehouse"). Nevertheless, in the media this is often presented as a contradiction in the direction of supplies, which requires the reader to distinguish between two planes — state export policy and private trading activity.
