MOSCOW, January 14. /TASS/. Natural gas filling in European underground gas storages (UGS) dropped below 50%, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data. This occurred so early from the year start for the first time during the monitoring period since 2011.

Gas withdrawals from European UGS totaled 814.66 mln cubic meters on January 12. At the same time, just 22.64 mln cubic meters were injected. European UGS are therefore just 49.33% filled.

About 53.26 bln cubic meters of gas are in European storages now, 17.7 bln cubic meters lower than last year.

At the same time, gas flows to the European gas transport system from LNG terminals scaled up amid the increase in the pool of tankers carrying liquefied gas from the US to Europe. They are record-breaking for this season and amount to about 360-380 mln cubic meters per day.

LNG reserves in European storages are also 25% higher than in the last year and 15% above the average figure for mid-January over the last five years.