Europe again starts using gas from storage facilities due to cold snap

The cold snap in April forced the gas industry in Europe to start again using gas reserves from underground storage facilities instead of restoring them, according to the association Gas Infrastructure Europe, Report informs citing Interfax.

From March 22 to March 30, EU underground gas storages showed an increase in the level of gas reserves (injection exceeded withdrawal), but from March 31 they again switched to net withdrawal; and on April 1, net withdrawal from UGS increased.

As of April 2, the reserves decreased to 26.29%.

The beginning of April turned out to be rather cool this year in Europe - near the minimum values ​​​​for this time in recent years. According to forecasts for the week from March 28-April 3 and April 4-10, on average, it is 7 degrees colder than the air temperature in the second decade of March.

The situation is slightly relieved by the fact that inclement weather is accompanied by increased wind, which means that wind power generation will be quite productive.

Europe is facing the most intense pumping campaign in history this summer. Taking into account the directive of the European Commission to achieve a mandatory level of reserves in UGS facilities by November 1 at 80% of current levels, Europe will need to pump 60 billion cubic meters of gas into storage facilities. The value of this volume at current quotes on the spot market is almost $80 billion.

“In addition, the total volume of gas available on the European market is highly dependent on demand in the growing Asian market,” Russia’s Gazprom commented on the upcoming injection season.