MOSCOW, July 15. /TASS/. The volumes of gas withdrawn from underground gas storage (UGS) facilities exceeded those injected in some European countries on some days in the first half of July, Gazprom said in a statement on Friday.
"Notably, on some days in the first half of July, some European countries, such as Germany and Belgium, saw the amounts of gas withdrawn exceed those injected at their UGS facilities," according to the statement.
That said, Europe needs to inject another 35.5 bln cubic meters of gas into its UGS facilities to get them to the levels observed at the start of the 2019-2020 withdrawal period, the Russian gas holding said referring to data provided by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). As of July 13, gas reserves contained in Europe's underground gas storage facilities were replenished by 36.9 bln cubic meters.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, the injection rates at European UGS facilities were down by half on July 11 as the Nord Stream gas pipeline was halted for scheduled maintenance. In particular, only 348 mln cubic meters of gas were added to European UGS facilities, down from over 500 mln cubic meters in previous days, while the withdrawal of gas from UGS facilities rose from 17 to 76 mln cubic meters. Meanwhile, gas withdrawal from underground gas storages exceeded injected volumes in Germany on July 12 for the first time since early April (85.5 mln cubic meters compared to 72.6 mln cubic meters, respectively).
Gas deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline, the main route of gas exports from Russia to Europe, were halted on July 11 for ten days because of scheduled annual maintenance. As a result, only one transit line through Ukraine remains the sole route of supply of Russian gas to western and central European countries as maintenance is underway at Nord Stream, while gas deliveries via TurkStream and Blue Stream are meant for Turkey and southern and south-eastern European states.