Belgium fills its gas storage by more than 90%

MOSCOW, Sep 27 – PRIME. Gas reserves in the Belgian underground storage exceeded 90%, according to the Association of Gas Infrastructure Operators in Europe (Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE).

At the end of the gas day on September 25 (ended at 07:00 Moscow time on September 26), the only UGS facility in Belgium was filled to 90.05%, the daily increase was 1 percentage point (p.p.). In general, the European “subways” are filled to 87.73%, the increase per day amounted to 0.31 percentage points. They now contain about 94.92 billion cubic meters of gas.

The target of 80%, which had to be achieved by November 1, has so far been overcome by 14 of the 18 EU countries that have UGS facilities. In 7 of these 14 countries, storage facilities are over 90% full. However, the storage capacity in each of the bottoms is uneven.

Moreover, there are 27 states in the EU, and gas storages usually provide only 25-30% of the gas consumed in Europe in winter, the European Commission reported in summer. Even close to the maximum reserves in UGSFs of large EU countries do not guarantee a reliable passage of the autumn-winter period, Gazprom believes.

Meanwhile, Russian gas supplies to Europe remain limited. The application for pumping towards Ukraine through the Sudzha gas measuring station (GIS) as of September 27 is 42.4 million cubic meters, follows from the data of the GTS Operator of Ukraine, which was confirmed by Gazprom. The indicator has been holding at the level of 40-43 million since the end of May. Deliveries through the GIS “Sokhanovka” are not conducted, as Ukraine rejects the application of “Gazprom”.

The Nord Stream gas pipeline has been completely suspended since the end of August, since during scheduled maintenance, malfunctions were identified at the only operating unit of the Portovaya station. As Gazprom reported, the German Siemens examined the problems and expressed its readiness to eliminate them, but because of the Western sanctions, there is nowhere to do this.

In addition, on Monday, Nord Stream 2 AG reported that on one of the lines of Nord Stream 2 (it was filled with technical gas), an emergency occurred in Danish waters near the island of Bornholm, accompanied by a sharp drop in pressure. The reasons are unknown, an investigation is underway. Then Nord Stream AG, the operator of Nord Stream, reported on the pressure drop on both lines. The reasons are also not known.