Gas reserves in EU underground storage facilities rise above 90BCM

Gas reserves in underground storage facilities of the EU have again exceeded 90 billion cubic meters against the backdrop of a record injection. It continues to be more than 2 times higher than the extraction from facilities, which is at a historical low for the end of December reported from TASS.

Temperatures above the climate norm have led to a noticeable decrease in gas consumption in Europe and a rapid drop in prices, and the current week is forecast to be no less warm.

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), gas withdrawal from the underground facilities in EU countries on December 26 amounted to only 107.5 million cubic meters (the lowest figure for this day for the entire period of GIE observation since 2011), while injection amounted to 220.5 million cubic meters. The heating season in Europe began on November 14, and since that moment the EU countries have withdrawn 15.42 billion cubic meters of gas from storage facilities. At the same time, the total withdrawal of gas from the storage facilities on the 43rd day from the moment of reaching the maximum of their filling is 26% higher than the average value for this day for the previous five years.

Underground gas facilities in Europe are now 83.21% full (11.9 percentage points higher than the average for this date over the past five years), they contain 90.05 billion cubic meters of gas. The number of EU countries conducting net extraction of gas from storage facilities has decreased markedly.

At the same time, the current New Year’s Eve week promises to be as warm as the previous one. Temperatures will be above the climatic norm in late December in many European countries.

Against the backdrop of warm weather, Europe is reducing the flow of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from terminals into the gas transmission system, which has fallen to a minimum since early November. The average gas purchase price in December also fell sharply to $1,360 per 1,000 cubic meters. On December 27, the price of January gas futures on the TTF hub in the Netherlands fell below $850 for the first time since February 22.

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