MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Europe continues to increase gas withdrawals from underground storage facilities at a record pace at the start of the heating season, having already used 4.15 bln cubic meters, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

Europe began the heating season with record-low gas reserves. Just 13 days have passed since underground gas storage facilities reached their fall peak filling level of 74.96%, but total withdrawals are already 2.1 times the average for the previous five years. Moreover, record daily gas withdrawals were registered on seven of those 11 days (October 28 and 29, and November 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6).

Since the heating season began on October 28, Europe has withdrawn more than 4 bln cubic meters of gas from storage. Net withdrawals (the difference between withdrawal and injection volumes) reached 3.4 bln cubic meters, three times the five-year average.

Thus, in terms of net withdrawals, European countries have already used 6.6% of the 51.2 bln cubic meters of gas they injected over the summer in preparation for colder weather.

As of November 9, European underground gas storage facilities were 72% full (17.26 percentage points below the five-year average for this date), compared with 82.55% a year earlier. This remains the lowest level for this date since records began in 2011. EU storage facilities hold less than 79 bln cubic meters of gas, down 12.3 bln cubic meters from last year and the lowest level since 2013.

Under European Commission requirements, EU countries must ensure that their gas storage facilities are 90% full between October 1 and December 1 each year. A 10-percentage-point flexibility margin is permitted in the event of difficult storage-filling conditions. Thus, net injections into European storage facilities ahead of the 2026-2027 fall-winter season should have totaled at least 68 bln cubic meters to meet the storage-filling requirement. However, this year the European Commission was prepared to lower the target to 80% in the hope of a very warm winter, a level Europe ultimately failed to reach.