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Gazprom increases gas export to France 1.5-fold year-to-date

Reserves in the country’s underground storage facilities have dropped below 30%

© Dmitry Rogulin/TASS

MOSCOW, February 16. /TASS/. Gas export to France by Gazprom has increased by almost 1.5-fold since the beginning of the year, whereas reserves in the country’s underground storage facilities have dropped below 30%, Russia’s top gas producer said in a statement on Tuesday.

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"The demand for natural gas in European countries keeps growing amid the cold winter, whereas reserves in European underground storage facilities - contracting. According to the data provided by Gas Infrastructure Europe, gas reserves in France’s underground storage facilities have decreased below 30%," Gazprom said.

The company said last week that Germany increased purchases of the Russian gas by 47.8% in first ten days of February compared with the same period last year, adding that the cold winter pushes up the gas demand in Europe.

Gas export by Gazprom to non-CIS countries went up by 36.5% (or by 7.4 bln cubic meters) to 27.5 bln cubic meters from January 1 to February 15, the holding said earlier. Particularly, purchases were increased by such large consumers of the Russian gas as Germany (by 35.5%), Turkey (by 30.5%), Italy (by 112.7%), France (by 43.7%), Poland (by 63.7%), and the Netherlands (by 8.4%).

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