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Reserves in EU’s UGS below 78%, transit via Ukraine down 44% year-to-date

The heating season started in Europe on November 14

MOSCOW, January 24. /TASS/. Gas reserves in Europe’s underground gas storage (UGS) facilities have decreased below 78%, stably remaining record high for this season due to favorable weather. Withdrawal from UGS facilities remains at the level of mid-December 2022, though this week the temperature in the region is expected to add a couple of degrees. That said, requests for transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory remain lower, having lost 44% since the beginning of January.

Gas withdrawal from EU countries’ UGS facilities amounted to 616 mln cubic meters on January 22 (the minimum level for the day since 2014), according to data provided by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). Meanwhile, the pumping into them equaled 27 mln cubic meters.

The heating season started in Europe on November 14. Since then, EU countries have withdrawn 23.5 bln cubic meters of gas from UGS facilities. Currently European UGS facilities are 77.81% full (20.2 percentage points higher than the average as of this date in the past five years), with 84.25 bln cubic meters of gas stored in them.

Requests for transit of Russian gas to Europe through Ukraine for January 24 remain at lower level of 24.4 mln cubic meters via the Sudzha gas distribution station, according to data released on the website of the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU). Consequently, gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine have dropped by 44% since the beginning of January. Previously they remained at 42-43 mln cubic meters per day. The transit line through Ukraine remains the only route to supply Russian gas to western and central European countries after Nord Stream was damaged.

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