Europe has slowed down the pace of pumping gas into storage

MOSCOW, Sep 22 — PRIME. In the EU countries, the injection of gas into underground storage facilities (UGS) continues, but at a lower rate than in August, so they may not have time to fill them by 90% by the end of September, as previously expected, follows from the information of the Association of Gas Infrastructure Operators of Europe ( Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE).

As of the end of the gas day on September 20 (ended at 07:00 Moscow time on September 21), the storages were filled by 86.46%, while the daily increase amounted to 0.22 percentage points (p.p.). On average, the EU fills them in September by 0.3 percentage points. per day, which is lower than the August rate (0.37 p.p.). Thus, if, with August indicators, it was expected that the storage facilities would be filled by more than 90% in the twentieth of September, then with the current ones this will happen in early October.

However, even in this scenario, the rate of gas injection into the EU from 1 to 20 September this year is higher than the average for the same period of the last five years (0.23 percentage points). Moreover, the overall UGS occupancy rate by 1.7 p.p. above the five year average. The target level of 80%, which had to be reached by November 1, was exceeded by the EU back in August.

The indicator of 80% has now been overcome by 14 of the 18 EU countries that have UGS facilities. In total, there are 27 states in the EU, and gas storages usually provide only 25-30% of the gas consumed in Europe in winter, it was reported in the summer in the materials of the European Commission. 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. Thus, the application for pumping towards Ukraine through the Sudzha gas measuring station (GIS) as of September 22 is 42.4 million cubic meters, follows from the data of the GTS Operator of Ukraine. 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”.

And the Nord Stream gas pipeline has been completely suspended since the end of August, since during scheduled maintenance, malfunctions were identified at the only working 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.