Net gas injection (the difference between the volume of injection and withdrawal) into underground storage facilities (UGS) in Europe since the start of the summer season has approached 45 billion cubic meters of the 61 billion cubic meters needed to fill them by 90% by next winter, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). This volume already significantly exceeds the data for 2024, which also takes into account injections in September-October.
Gas injection into UGS in EU countries on August 18, according to GIE, amounted to 341 million cubic meters. Withdrawals have decreased to 19 million cubic meters. The total fuel volume in UGS is only the seventh highest for July over the entire observation period - 81.6 billion cubic meters of gas (-18% compared to the previous year).
Currently, European UGS are filled to 74.21% (7.65 percentage points lower than the average for this date over the past five years) compared to 89.8% a year earlier. According to the new requirements of the European Commission, EU countries must ensure that their storage facilities are 90% filled with gas between October 1 and November 1 each year. In addition, 10% flexibility is allowed in case of difficult conditions for filling UGS. At the same time, this requirement gives an additional impetus to the growth of gas prices on the European market. TASS calculations show that net gas injections from Europe during the upcoming filling season of UGSs must be at least 61 billion cubic meters to meet the filling standard. This is almost 50% higher than the net injections a year earlier and is one of the highest figures in history.
Earlier, „Gazprom“ predicted that Europe would have difficulties filling its storage facilities for the winter. This summer, countries in the region need more gas to replenish their reserves, and given the limited commissioning of new capacity on the market, they must compete for liquefied natural gas (LNG) with Asia, whose demand for the fuel is growing. The Gas Exporting Countries Forum expected that the EU would face significant difficulties in filling its underground gas storage facilities by 90% by winter and predicted that summer gas exchange prices would be higher than in winter, undermining the economic feasibility of pumping gas into storage.
The share of wind power generation in EU electricity production in July was on average 12%, in August - about 14%. The average purchase price of gas in Europe in July this year was about 410 USD per 1000 cubic meters. m, in August - about 394 USD.
Over the past heating season, Europe imported almost 63 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG), which is the third highest figure for this period. A larger volume of regasified gas has been delivered from LNG terminals to the EU gas transmission system in the two previous winter seasons only.
LNG imports from Europe in June reached their maximum for the month (12.2 billion cubic meters), and in July lost their record pace. Currently, regasification capacities are loaded at 43% of the maximum.