Russia's Gazprom begins withdrawing gas from underground storage facilities; Ukraine's reserves minimal; EU reserves far from record highs
MOSCOW. Nov 2 (Interfax) - Gazprom has started withdrawing gas from underground storage facilities in Russia, the company said.
Gazprom has created an operational gas reserve in Russian storage facilities totaling 73.034 billion cubic meters for the winter of 2024-2025, an absolute record for the domestic gas industry, Gazprom said.
"Traditionally, a high level of reserves in underground gas storage facilities allows the company to successfully cope with seasonal fluctuations in demand. For example, during sharp cold snaps, Gazprom has the ability to quickly increase gas supplies to consumers," Gazprom said.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), the volume of reserves in European underground gas storage facilities has not reached the maximum levels of the 2019-2020 and 2023-2024 seasons of 97.6 billion cubic meters and 100.9 bcm, respectively, Gazprom said. There are currently 97.1 bcm of gas in storage facilities, which is only the third highest result in history. Moreover, European companies have switched to the gas withdrawal mode from the reserves created during the summer season in the last ten days of October. The European underground gas storage network has been in a state of net withdrawal for six days already.
Ukraine has currently accumulated only 12.7 bcm of gas in underground storage facilities including buffer gas, which is the minimum for the observed indicators at the start of the off-take season.
The UGS network in Russia is an integral part of the Unified Gas Supply System of the country. Together with the gas transportation and gas production divisions of Gazprom, UGS optimize production processes, reducing the volume of capital and operating costs, ensuring optimal operating modes of process equipment. UGS facilities smooth out any types of unevenness in gas demand - seasonal, weekly, daily, and providing from 20% to 40% of all Gazprom gas supplies during the heating season. There are 23 UGS facilities in operation in Russia, created in 27 geological structures: 17 in depleted gas fields, and eight in aquifers and two in rock salt deposits.