MOSCOW, January 20. /TASS/. European countries have withdrawn as much as two thirds of the gas pumped last year, or almost 32 bln cubic meters, from their underground storage facilities, Gazprom said in a statement on Thursday.

"Overall, on European underground gas storage facilities, as much as two thirds of the gas pumped last year has already been withdrawn. As of January 18, the offtake reached 66.5%, or 31.8 bln cubic meters of gas," the statement said.

According to the figures provided by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), as of January 18 Germany’s underground storage facilities were filled by less than 45%, standing at 44.7%.

Total gas content of underground gas storages in Europe dropped to 45.45% as of January 18, according to GIE. Around 49.07 bln cubic meters of gas are currently stored in European storage facilities, down by 16.25 bln cubic meters compared with last year.

Gas offtake from European underground storage facilities amounted to 785.15 mln cubic meters as of January 18. Roughly 10.5 bln cubic meters of gas has already been withdrawn from storage facilities since the beginning of January, the third-largest volume for this date since records started in 2011.