MOSCOW, February 2. /TASS/. Gas extraction from European underground storage facilities (UGS) in January showed the third-highest level since records started amid freezing temperatures, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

Gas withdrawals from European storage facilities in January totaled 23.9 bln cubic meters. This is the third-highest level since January 2017 (25.38 bln cubic meters) and January 2021 (25.39 bln cubic meters). Meanwhile, injections into underground gas storage facilities reached a ten-year low of 723 mln cubic meters.

The last season of gas withdrawals from European underground storage facilities ended on March 28, 2025, with 33.57% of reserves remaining. At the end of January 2026, European underground gas storage facilities were only 41.13% full (15.89 percentage points lower than the average for that date over the past five years), compared to 53.6% the previous year. The reason for this dynamic was a sharp cold snap in Europe, which forced countries in the region to resort to a record gas consumption in five years.

By the end of this January, 45.5 bln cubic meters of gas were stored in EU underground gas storage facilities. Since the heating season started on October 13, 2025, EU countries have withdrawn roughly 51 bln cubic meters of gas from storage facilities. Net withdrawal (the net difference between withdrawal and injection volumes) is over 46 bln cubic meters, or 85% of the volume injected in the summer.