Less than 5 percent of the summer gas reserves pumped into Europe’s gas storages (UGS) remain.
As of February 17, Europe’s underground gas storage facilities (UGSFs) had used more than 95% of the volume pumped into them in summer 2021, Gazprom’s press service said, citing data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. Less than 5 percent of gas reserves remain in UGS facilities in Europe.
The amount of active gas in storage has decreased by over 20%, or 8.3 billion cubic meters, compared to the level of the previous year. Almost 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas have already been withdrawn. The overall level of gas reserves in Europe as of February 17 was less than 32%, according to GIE.
In Ukraine, a similar trend
The stocks of gas in underground gas storage facilities in Ukraine are also at a minimum level. They decreased to 10.6 billion cubic meters, which is by 45% or 8.7 billion cubic meters less than last year, according to “Kommersant”.
The supplies of Russian gas to the European countries began to fall in mid-2021, since the beginning of 2022, the decline has accelerated. This week the European Union (EU) announced that it would be provided with gas for a few weeks in case of supply cuts from Russia.
Europe is looking for a way out
In particular, the EU has agreements on LNG supplies from the US and Qatar. Today the head of the European Commission (EC) Ursula von der Leyen called the Russian gas giant’s supply policy strange.
Less than 5% of gas reserves remain in European gas storage facilities (UGS). Photo: archive photo
We already wrote that according to the analysts of Bank of America the cost of 1,000 cubic meters of natural gas according to the index of the Dutch TTF may reach $ 3,500 already in the current winter season. The December price of $2200 suggests that this may be a reality.
