Europe withdraws gas from storage at record pace for eighth day in a row

MOSCOW, November 10. /TASS/. Europe continues to extract gas from underground gas storage facilities (UGS) at a record pace. From November 1 to November 8, cumulative withdrawals since the beginning of the month set maximum records for the eighth day in a row, reaching 2.935 bln cubic meters, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). Cumulative withdrawals since the start of the month are 2.9 times higher than the same indicator last year. As of November 8, European UGS facilities were 72.38% full (17 percentage points lower than the five-year average for this date), compared to 82.61% a year earlier. This remains the lowest level for this date in the entire history of observations since 2011. EU storage facilities hold just over 79 bln cubic meters of gas, which is 11.9 bln cubic meters less than last year's reserves and the lowest level since 2013. Europe began the heating season with record-low gas reserves. Only 12 days have passed since UGS occupancy reached its autumn peak (74.96%), yet total withdrawals from them are already 2.1 times higher than the average over the previous five years. Moreover, record daily gas withdrawal figures were set on seven out of those eleven days (October 28-29, and November 1, 2, and 4-6). Since the start of the heating season on October 28, Europe has already lifted more than 3.684 bln cubic meters of gas from storage. Net withdrawals (the net difference between the volume of withdrawals and injections) exceeded 2.9 bln cubic meters, which is 2.9 times higher than the five-year average. In terms of net withdrawals, European countries have already spent 5.8% of the 51.2 bln cubic meters they injected over the summer ahead of the cold weather.