Ukraine continues to negotiate with Azerbaijan on new gas supplies – Hrynchuk

Ukraine continues to negotiate with Azerbaijan on the next supplies of natural gas, and is also negotiating its pumping into its underground storage facilities by non-residents and its extraction within the Ukrainian-American reconstruction fund, Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said.

"We are negotiating, the Azerbaijanis are interested in this," Hrynchuk said during a conversation with journalists as part of the presentation of the Government's Action Program in Kyiv on Monday, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reports from the scene.

She admitted that new supplies could take place even before the start of the autumn-winter period: "If we have time, we will conclude a new contract, then we will continue."

Hrynchuk also drew attention to the fact that negotiations are underway on the injection of gas by non-residents into underground storage facilities in Ukraine and production projects within the Ukrainian-American reconstruction fund.

"We are working with partners, we are currently holding technical consultations on projects with our gas storage facilities to increase the share of partner countries in their use, and on production projects within the reconstruction fund," the minister said.

"I think that there is an interest of partners in business projects in the gas sector," she emphasized.

The minister noted that Ukraine is now "not far" from the government's announced goal of accumulating at least 13.2 billion cubic meters by the beginning of the heating season, but is also counting on larger volumes of gas.

"There may be more. We are very counting on it. Although we are very cautious in our forecasts, because during the attacks on the gas transportation infrastructure, a large percentage of production was indeed lost and transportation was affected. However, a large percentage of the damaged equipment has been restored. Now we are catching up with the pace that was lost during the period when Naftogaz facilities were restored," explained Hrynchuk.

As reported, at the end of July 2025, the Naftogaz Group concluded the first agreement on the purchase of Azerbaijani gas with SOCAR Energy Ukraine, which is part of the SOCAR group. Naftogaz noted that for the first time, a test gas supply is also being carried out via the Trans-Balkan corridor along the Bulgaria-Romania-Ukrainian border route.