Russian gas sales on Gazprom Export's Electronic Sales Platform (ESP) surged to another new record high on Wednesday, with a colossal 406 million cu m sold in the latest auction.

Ukraine in January-June 2019 increased transit of natural gas through its gas transportation system (GTS) by 6.1% (by 2.591 billion cubic meters) compared to the same period of 2018, to 45.079 billion cubic meters, according to recent data from JSC Ukrtransgaz.

The head of state-run energy firm Naftogaz, Andriy Kobolev, has said that Ukraine needs to increase its gas reserves by 18% this year to cover its winter needs and to guarantee transit to European consumers.

The 229 million cu m sold Thursday is about half the average daily flows of total Russian gas to Europe last month of around 464 million cu m.

"Today our forecast for gas pipeline deliveries in 2019 to Europe and Turkey is between 198.6 and 201.1 Bcm," Miller said in a speech at the company's annual general meeting. Gazprom exported 201.9 Bcm to Europe in 2018, accounting for around 36.8% of the market.

"Over the next five years we will do everything necessary to become truly energy independent: we will unite our power grids with the European ones, integrate into the European energy market, increase oil and gas production and create conditions for the development of alternative energy sources. Together with the energy saving program this will make our economy more efficient and will give impetus to the development of Ukraine," the head of state said during a meeting with the business community in Kyiv.

More than a third of Europe’s gas comes from Russia, and most of that goes through Ukraine’s Soviet-era pipelines. Ukraine has proposed that the European Union store as much as 4 billion cubic meters of gas in its underground storage facilities to guarantee security of supply for eastern European countries heavily reliant on Russian gas, pipeline operator Ukrtransgaz said this week.

Gazprom's 10-year transit deal with Ukraine's Naftogaz expires on December 31 this year, with some in the European gas market becoming increasingly concerned that there could be disruption to Russian gas flows via Ukraine as a result.

Sberbank, EuroChem Group AG and SUEK JSC announced a strategic co-operation agreement signed at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Nord Stream 2, a 760-mile (1,225-km) pipeline project to ship gas from Russia under the Baltic Sea to Germany, would double the capacity of the existing Nord Stream pipeline and has divided the European Union.