Due to unfavorable weather conditions, in late February – early March, European countries sharply increased the rate of gas withdrawal from underground storage facilities. According to operator ENTSOG, around 580 to 590 million cubic meters of blue fuel are pumped from storage facilities every day.
The current rate of depletion of gas reserves has become a three-year record. Basically, the gaseous fuel is pumped to Germany and France, where on the first day of the calendar spring, 146 million and 119 million cubic meters of gas were transported, respectively.
This is related to weather conditions. Thus, the air temperature in a number of countries in the region has dropped significantly. After March 10, we expect a warming in Europe, but again the thermometers will drop. The Arctic winter, in particular, can come to Scandinavia, the cold air of which is expected on the territory of Germany. Given these forecasts, major gas consumers in the Old World are increasing the fuel supply to their gas transmission systems.
Meanwhile, in early March, European storage facilities, which were 60% full, contained around 64 billion cubic meters of fuel. In April, the heating season ends, however, due to cooling and increased gas offtake, its volume at UGS installations will fall to 40-50 billion cubic meters.
At the same time, according to IEA analysts, in the event of a stoppage of Russian fuel supplies in 2023, Europe may not have 57 billion cubic meters of gas in sufficient quantity. This should also be affected by a recovery in demand in China.
Photos used: Ivan Radic/wikimedia.org
