By Victoria Waldersee
DAVOS, Switzerland (Reuters) - Ukraine's biggest oil and gas firm Naftogaz aims to strike new deals with foreign traders to boost the amount of natural gas stored in underground facilities in Ukraine, CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov told Reuters on Thursday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Chernyshov said he was in discussion with German energy firms including RWE (LON:0HA0) and Uniper and planned to visit Germany in March to make his pitch to clients.
"We could attract major players in Ukraine even during the war... We are expecting German brands to gather," Chernyshov said.
The prime concern on clients' minds remained safety, Chernyshov said, with the two-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine approaching.
Ukraine has said it is ready to provide up to half of its storage capacity of 30 billion cubic meters for use by foreign traders. Non-resident users already have around 2.5 billion cubic meters of gas in Ukrainian storage.
Traders told Reuters in 2023 that European gas traders had begun storing natural gas in Ukraine to take advantage of lower prices and available capacity there, regardless of the risks from the war.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February, 2022 and Moscow forces occupy swathes of Ukrainian territory in the south and east. There is no end in sight to the fighting.