Filling rates of European UGS facilities fell to the lowest level since the start of the injection season

MOSCOW, 30 Sep — PRIME. The filling rate of European underground gas storages (UGS) fell to a minimum since the beginning of injection with the advent of cooling. This is evidenced by the data of the Association of Gas Infrastructure Operators of Europe (Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE).

Thus, at the end of the gas day on September 28 (ended at 7:00 Moscow time on September 29), UGS facilities in the European Union were filled by 88.25%, but only 0.18 percentage points (p.p.) were added per day.

Similar rates of downloading were only at the beginning of the season, which this year fully began in April. In its first days, European countries filled UGS facilities by 0.12-19 p.p. per day. In general, in September, the European Union fills these storage facilities by 0.29 percentage points. per day after 0.37 p.p. in August.

At the same time, Latvia, which has filled its storage facility by only 52.79% and still falls short of the target 80%, has been withdrawing gas from UGS facilities for the second day in a row. For three days in a row, Denmark also takes gas from UGS facilities, in which storage capacities, although they are 92.99% full, are 1.4 times inferior in capacity to storage in Latvia.

The target level of 80%, which had to be reached by November 1, has still been exceeded by 14 of the 18 EU countries that have UGS facilities. At the same time, the storage capacity in each of them 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 UGS facilities in large EU countries do not guarantee a reliable passage of the autumn-winter period, Gazprom believes.

Traditionally, the heating season in Europe begins in mid-October, and last year it fully started only in November.