MOSCOW, September 9. /TASS/. Net gas injection (the difference between the volume of injection and withdrawal) into underground storage facilities (UGS) in Europe since the beginning of the summer season has exceeded 50 billion cubic meters out of the 61 billion cubic meters needed to fill them 90% by the coming winter, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
On September 7, gas injection into UGS facilities in EU countries amounted to 317 million cubic meters. Withdrawal decreased to 13 million cubic meters. The total volume of gas in UGS is only the seventh highest for July over the entire observation period - 87.4 billion cubic meters of gas.
Currently, Europe's UGS facilities are filled to 79.49% (6.62 percentage points lower than the average for this date over the past five years) compared to 92.9% a year earlier.
According to the new requirements of the European Commission, EU countries must ensure that their storage facilities are filled to 90% of their capacity between October 1 and November 1 of each year.
Besides that, 10% flexibility is allowed in the event of difficult conditions for filling UGS facilities. However, this requirement gives an additional impetus to the growth of gas prices on the European market.
TASS calculations show that Europe's net gas injection during the UGS filling season must be at least 61 billion cubic meters in order to meet the filling standard.
This is almost 50% higher than the net injection a year earlier and one of the highest figures in history.
Earlier, Gazprom predicted that Europe would have difficulties filling its storage facilities for the winter. This summer, the countries of the region need more gas to replenish reserves and, in the conditions of limited commissioning of new capacities on the market, have to compete for LNG with Asia, whose demand for the fuel is growing.
The Gas Exporting Countries Forum expected that the EU would face significant difficulties in filling its underground gas storage facilities by 90% by winter, and predicted that summer exchange prices for gas would be higher than they were in winter, which undermines the economic feasibility of pumping gas into storage facilities.
The share of wind generation in the EU's electricity generation in August averaged 14%, in September - about 16%. The average price of gas purchases in Europe in August was about $394 per 1,000 cubic meters, in September - about $390.
In the past heating season, Europe imported almost 63 billion cubic meters of LNG, which was the third highest figure for this period. LNG imports by Europe in June reached their maximum for this month (12.2 billion cubic meters), but then lost their record pace.