MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Gas reserves in underground storage facilities (UGS) in Europe fell below 70 billion cubic meters. By the end of last week, the wind returned to the region again, and the share of wind generation in EU electricity generation has increased dramatically. In this situation storage withdrawals have fallen to their lowest level since 2012, while injections have reached a record.

Applications for the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Ukraine increased by 9.5% over the weekend and are at the level of 39.2 million cubic meters.

Currently, UGS facilities in Europe are filled to 64.13% (20.61 percentage points higher than the average for this date over the past five years), they contain 69.48 billion cubic meters of gas. However, Gazprom warned that even close to the maximum gas reserves in UGS facilities in large European countries do not guarantee them a reliable passage of the autumn-winter period. The load on UGS facilities in Europe this winter is higher than in previous years due to changes in logistics and gas supply sources.

This week in Europe is expected to be as warm as the last week. Temperatures in many EU countries will be significantly above the climatic norm, but will drop slightly by the beginning of the next seven-day period. The average share of wind generation in EU electricity generation in February is lower than last year and is about 17%.