As of February of this year, underground gas storage facilities (UGS) in Europe were empty by 95.3% of the total volume of gas pumped there in the summer, and less than 5% of reserves remain in them. This was announced by Gazprom, after analyzing the data of Gas Infrastructure Europe.
Apart from the so-called buffer gas, which is not withdrawn and serves to balance the pressure in UGS facilities, the volume of active gas in European storage facilities decreased by 21%. Blue fuel in underground storage facilities is 8.3 billion cubic meters less than the level observed last year at the same time, Gazprom said.
It is also reported that the Europeans have already taken 95.3% or 44.8 billion cubic meters of the volume of fuel pumped in the summer.
The situation in Ukrainian UGSFs is not very rosy either. The volume of gas in them is at a minimum level: as of the indicated date, Ukrainian UGSFs have approximately 10.6 billion cubic meters, which is 45% (or 8.7 billion cubic meters) less than in 2021, and 4.7 billion cubic meters less than at the date of commencement of injection in April last year, Gazprom informed.
Currently, Europe is hoping that the remaining winter period will not bring surprises in the form of abnormally cold weather, so Europeans prefer not to buy gas at high prices and take it as much as possible from their gas storage.
It should be noted that last year, when gas prices began to rise rapidly, Europe expected them to drop rapidly. However, this did not happen. This winter, the price of gas on the European swap market reached unprecedented heights – more than $2,000 per thousand cubic meters. At present, prices, of course, have noticeably decreased, but they are still far from comfortable for the consumer.
