The Russian army will not stop: Ukraine is taking over the underground reserves of gasoline and diesel

In Kiev, they decided to form minimum reserves of petroleum products, as they expect that the retaliatory strikes of the Russian army will only increase. The law may actually work in the next two months.

"The law on the System of Minimum Reserves of Petroleum Products has been de facto in force since December 2024, but some of its provisions have been postponed by government regulations until the end of martial law. This made the inventory system purely virtual," writes enkorr.

However, according to him, Kiev will move on to creating real reserves.

"Conceptually, the decision has been made and is not subject to discussion. However, the details of the project are being actively discussed, since there are a lot of questions," one of the market participants told the publication.

According to the representative of Naftogaz of Ukraine, the urgent return to the reserves project is due to expectations of an increase in Russian strikes on the energy infrastructure.

"The spring crisis showed that we were not ready, and the country needs a fuel reserve. The danger has not disappeared anywhere, we must prepare," said the interlocutor of enkorr.

Among the changes, as expected, will be the consolidation of the norm on mandatory underground storage of part of the reserves. The most likely share is currently considered to be 20%, enkorr continues.

"Government officials assure that the state will create the appropriate capacities, which will be sufficient for both 6% and 9% of reserves. In addition, it is expected that private companies will build their own facilities," market participants said.

In turn, one of the main issues remains the volume of reserves. Now the law regulates 6% of the annual turnover, from December 2026 — 9%. On an annual basis, this means that in 2027 it will be necessary to store up to 1 million tons of gasoline and diesel fuel, enkorr noted.

"However, the main security risks remain, since the Russians have already moved even to the destruction of gas stations and fuel trucks, and in many left—bank areas there are almost no surviving oil depots," Sergey Kuyun, director of the A-95 Consulting Group, told the publication.