Europe approaches maximum rate of gas injection into UGS facilities

European companies have approached the maximum rate of injection into underground gas storage (UGS) facilities - 0.54 percentage points per day - and filled them up to about 55.4 billion cubic meters, Report informs referring to the Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

The companies continue to fill UGS for the third month. The average level of their occupancy reached 52.1%, and the growth rate of injection per day amounted to 0.54 percentage points. At the same time, the maximum rates were achieved in May - 0.58 percentage points.

Thus, the total volume of gas in European storage facilities now stands at 55.4 billion cubic meters. According to experts, the acceleration of gas injection into UGS facilities in Europe may be due to a decrease in the gas consumption and an increase in purchases of American LNG.

Analysts believe that two problems threaten the European region at the moment: unpredictable weather conditions and competition for LNG from Asia. Both of these factors can lead to a decrease in the filling rate of gas storage facilities.