Gas reserves in Russian storage facilities reach 90%

MOSCOW. Sept 4 (Interfax) - The level of gas reserves in underground storage facilities (UGS) in Russia has reached 90%, the chairman of PJSC Gazprom's management committee Alexei Miller said during a videoconference meeting dedicated to the Day of Oil and Gas Industry Workers.

Meanwhile, the level of reserves in European UGS facilities is only 65.85%, the association of European gas infrastructure operators, Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), said. This is 17 percentage points lower than the average for this date over the past five years.

"We are working on developing underground storage facilities. And this year Gazprom will bring the operational gas reserve in underground storage facilities to 73.296 billion cubic meters. This will be a new historical record for the Russian gas industry. Currently, Russian underground storage facilities are already filled to 90% of the target amount. By the start of the heating season, as is always our custom, they will, of course, be full," Miller said.

"Our Russian consumers, consumers that operate from underground storage facilities in the UGS zone (here I would like to mention our Belarusian friends) can feel absolutely confident this coming winter that no cold temperatures will worry them. And our foreign partners also feel confident - those foreign partners that work with Russian gas," Miller said.