Europe is drawing gas from its reserves at the fastest pace in seven years as cold weather increases heating needs and temperatures are expected to fall again this week, Bloomberg reports, cited by agerpres.ro.
Underground gas storages in the Europe region, which act as a buffer in the event of problems on the supply side, are now 70% full, compared with 86% at the same time last year. While there is no risk of an immediate shortfall, the rapid emptying of storage could make it more difficult to refill next season and risks having an impact on prices in the short term.
According to data provided by Gas Infrastructure Europe and analyzed by Bloomberg, European gas storage storage is 25 percentage points below its peak filling level, the biggest drop since 2018.
"The lower the filling level of deposits at the end of March, the harder it will be for Europe to refill them next season. This will be all the more likely as forecasts show that temperatures will be lower than currently expected", says Samantha Dart, research director at Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Temperatures have fallen across much of north-western Europe, which could mean further withdrawals of gas from storage as heating needs rise. The continent is also increasingly exposed to market volatility as it relies on liquefied natural gas to fill the gap left by the cessation of Russian gas transit through pipelines in Ukraine.
The possibility of unscheduled disruptions at the main gas suppliers could further unbalance the region's fragile gas balance and trigger further price fluctuations. In Norway, for example, the Hammerfest liquefied gas processing plant shut down until January 9 due to compressor problems.
Agerpres.ro writes, as quoted by IPN, that last week, gas quotes advanced by 4% and are currently at their highest level in 14 months as the market grapples with dwindling inventories and reduced deliveries. On Monday, gas futures at the TTF hub in Amsterdam fell slightly by 1.2% and at around 8:49 a.m. stood at €49.05 per Megawatt-hour.
