MOSCOW, January 11. /TASS/. Europe is boosting its gas withdrawal from underground gas storage (UGS) facilities again amid a slight drop in temperature. That said, withdrawal from UGS facilities is still at a record low level for January, with temperatures remaining above the climate normal in most European countries.

Gas withdrawal from EU countries’ UGS facilities amounted to 279 mln cubic meters on January 9 (the minimum level since 2014), according to data provided by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). Meanwhile, the pumping into them equaled 37.5 mln cubic meters.

The heating season started in Europe on November 14. Since then, EU countries have withdrawn 17.72 bln cubic meters of gas from UGS facilities. Currently European UGS facilities are 82.83% full (17 percentage points higher than the average as of this date in the past five years), with 89.65 bln cubic meters of gas stored in them.

Russian gas supplies to Europe in transit through Ukraine remained at 35.5 mln cubic meters via the Sudzha gas distribution station on January 11, according to data released on the website of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU). The transit line through Ukraine remains the only route to supply Russian gas to western and central European countries after Nord Stream was damaged.