Gas reserves in European storage facilities are approaching 85%

MOSCOW, 16 Sep — PRIME. Europe continues to pump gas into its UGS facilities, they are already almost 85% filled with the target level for this year of 80%, which had to be reached by November 1, follows from the data of the Association of Gas Infrastructure Operators of Europe (Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE).

According to the data at the end of the gas day on September 14 (ended at 7:00 Moscow time on September 15), European UGSFs were 84.71% full. At the same time, the growth per day amounted to only 0.22 percentage points (p.p.) – the minimum rate for this month. In total, the EU underground storage facilities now contain approximately 91.64 billion cubic meters of gas.

According to the GIE, 13 out of 18 EU countries with gas storage facilities have exceeded the target 80% capacity set in Europe after the surge in gas stock prices. We are talking about Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. At the same time, there are 27 states in the EU, therefore, not all of them have UGS facilities for reserve “blue fuel”.

According to the materials of the European Commission, storage facilities usually provide 25-30% of the gas consumed in the region in winter. “Gazprom” noted that even close to the maximum reserves in UGSFs in large European countries do not guarantee a reliable passage of the upcoming autumn-winter period (WZP) there.

The deliveries of the Russian company, meanwhile, remain limited. Thus, the application for pumping towards Ukraine through the Sudzha gas measuring station (GIS) as of September 16 is 42.4 million cubic meters, the application for the GIS Sokhranivka is rejected. In addition, the work of Nord Stream has been suspended since the end of August due to a malfunction at the only operating unit of the Portovaya station.