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Several EU countries fail to meet gas storage filling thresholds in February

In general, at the beginning of February, EU gas storage facilities were filled to about 53%, which is the lowest figure for this time since 2022, the media noted

NEW YORK, February 3. /TASS/. Europe barely reached the February target for natural gas reserves and some countries did not reach the threshold, Bloomberg reported.

According to its data, as of February 1, France's gas storage facilities were filled to 35.5%, while the European Commission set a target of 41%.

In general, at the beginning of February, EU gas storage facilities were filled to about 53%, which is the lowest figure for this time since 2022, the agency noted. At the same time, the target reached 50%.

Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) reported earlier on Monday that gas reserves in underground storage (UGS) facilities in Europe have dropped to around 53%. However, gas volumes in UGS facilities are still the fourth highest in history for early February. Since the beginning of the heating season, the EU has withdrawn more than 49.5 bln cubic meters from its UGS facilities.

Gas withdrawals from UGS facilities in EU countries amounted to 557 mln cubic meters on February 1, according to GIE. Injections decreased to 28 mln cubic meters. Despite the high rate of consumption of gas reserves in January, the situation is still far from catastrophic for Europe. The total volume of fuel in UGS facilities is the fourth highest for the beginning of February for the entire observation period with less than 59 bln cubic meters of gas.

The last season of gas withdrawal from European underground storage facilities ended on March 31, 2024, when 58.44% of the reserves remained in them (a record for the observation period). Currently, the European UGS facilities are filled to 53.11% (7.03 p.p. lower than the average for this date over the past five years), which is already lower than the figure not only at the end of the last fall-winter period, but also at the end of the 2019-2020 and 2022-2023 heating seasons.

The deliveries of LNG from terminals to the European gas transmission system decreased slightly in January compared to December. Currently, the capacity LNG regasification and its subsequent injection into European pipelines reaches 51% of its maximum.

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