There are more countries in the European Union that have filled UGS facilities by 90 percent

MOSCOW, 30 Sep — PRIME. In the EU, nine states have already filled their gas storage facilities (UGS) by more than 90%, this number includes Italy and the Netherlands. This is evidenced by the data of the Association of Gas Infrastructure Operators of Europe (Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE).

Gas reserves in Italy’s UGS facilities exceeded 90% at the end of the gas day on September 27, and according to data at the end of the gas day on September 28, storage facilities in Italy were 90.25% full. A similar trend was observed in the Netherlands, where, as of September 28, UGSFs were 90.66% full.

In general, UGS facilities in Europe are filled to 88.25%, adding 0.18 percentage points over the gas day on September 28. In total, they contain about 95.54 billion cubic meters of gas. The general mark of 90% of UGS facilities in Europe, while maintaining the current rate of injection, will be overcome next week, according to RIA Novosti calculations.

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. We are talking about Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Sweden. However, 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 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. Moreover, the capacity of the Nord Stream pipeline system, due to leaks that arose, according to Russia, as a result of terrorist attacks, has now completely retired for an indefinite period.

“Although the investigation into the causes of the pipeline damage (Nord Stream” – ed.) is ongoing, an almost guaranteed interruption of supplies will inevitably affect the supply of gas in Europe this winter, but even more worrying is the impact of the situation on gas reserves in storage before next winter, “experts say analytical Rystad Energy.