MOSCOW, October 2 – Novosti. For the first time since the beginning of April (since the end of the heating season), gas withdrawal from underground storage facilities in the European Union exceeded injection after the depletion of UGS facilities in Belgium, according to the data of the Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) Association of Gas Infrastructure Operators in Europe.
Thus, at the end of the gas day on September 30 (07:00 Moscow time on October 1), European UGS facilities were filled by 87.83 percent. At the same time, over the past five days, the injection rate has been steadily declining – from 0.32 to 0.15 percentage points. For comparison: in September, the average injection rate was 0.25 percentage points, and a month earlier – 0.37.
As a result, the UGS filling rate dropped to minus 0.51 percentage points per day, which is the lowest value in six months. And although 16 of the 18 countries that have storage facilities continue to pump, the figure has gone into the negative because UGS facilities in Belgium, one of the smallest in terms of volume, have been emptied (minus 92.09 percentage points). However, the data on the GIE is not final and is subject to change.
The total capacity of European storage facilities is about 110 billion cubic meters, and they currently hold about 95.3 billion cubic meters of gas. The target occupancy rate of 80 percent, which the EU planned to achieve by November 1, was exceeded by 13 countries, and of these, the threshold of 90 percent was crossed by Germany , France , Italy , the Netherlands , Poland , Spain , Portugal , Croatia , Denmark , Sweden . The furthest from the target is Latvia , where UGS facilities are filled by 52.54 percent (minus 0.09 percentage points).
Meanwhile, European storage usually provides only 25-30 percent of the gas consumed in Europe in winter. Therefore, even reserves close to the maximum do not guarantee a reliable passage of the autumn-winter period. The situation is aggravated by a significant reduction in supplies from Russia. Against this backdrop, EU governments are putting in place energy saving plans and warning the public that the coming winter will be tough.
