Gas reserves in underground storage (UGS) in Europe have fallen to about 38% for the first time in the last 3 years, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). At the same time, withdrawals from underground gas storage this week may decrease significantly due to warming. Since the beginning of the heating season, net withdrawals (the difference between the volume of withdrawals and injections) from EU UGS amounted to about 63.5 billion cubic meters.
Gas withdrawals from underground gas storage in EU countries on March 1, according to GIE, amounted to 388 million cubic meters. Injections decreased to 23 million cubic meters. Against the background of the high rates of consumption of gas reserves during the current heating season, the total volume of fuel in the underground gas storage is only the seventh maximum for the beginning of March for the entire monitoring period - 42.4 billion cubic meters of gas.
The last season of gas withdrawal from European underground storages ended on March 31, 2024, when 58.44% of the reserves remained in them (a record for the entire monitoring period). Currently, underground gas storage facilities in Europe are 38.23% full (11.46 percentage points lower than the average for this date over the past five years), which in relative terms is already lower than the figure not only at the end of the last autumn-winter period, but also at the end of the heating seasons 2010-2011, 2011-2012, 2013-2014, 2018-20 19, 2019-2020 and 2022-2023.
This week in Europe is expected to be very warm. The share of wind energy in electricity production in the EU is on average 13% in February and around 18% in early March. The average purchase price of gas in Europe in January this year was around 518 USD, and in February - 542 USD.
Supplies of liquefied natural gas from terminals to the European gas transportation system in February were record for this month. Currently, the capacity for regasification of liquefied gas and its subsequent injection into European pipelines is loaded at 49% of its maximum.