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Europe’s gas tanks at record 69% full

with just over one month of heating to go

UKRAINE EUROPE’S gas storage tanks are 68.8% full, a remain at 19% as of February 7. Ukraine went
record high in the last decade, with a little more into the heating season with some 14bn cubic
EU gas storage than one month left of the heating season. (chart) metres of gas in storage, well below the circa 19
utilisation has reached After the weather turned colder in recent bcm it usually starts winter with.
a decade high. weeks withdrawals from the gas tanks stepped However, the havoc and destruction caused
up but remained on a par with previous years. by the war against Russia has significantly cut
The levels of gas in storage are tracking those demand, reducing withdrawals. As the heating
of 2021, the previous record year, and slightly season usually finishes at the end of March it
higher than the 68.5% full tanks were on the appears that Ukraine will complete the season
same day in 2021. with sufficient reserves in its tanks.
In December, unusually mild conditions plus Gas prices have tumbled on the back of copi-
the ongoing arrival of record amounts of LNG ous supplies of gas, and were trading at $2.4 per
imports allowed Germany to briefly reverse MMBtu ($819 per thousand cubic metres) as
flows and add to its stock of gas for almost two of February 8, well below the astronomical lev-
weeks, bringing its tanks back to an unprece- els of last year summer and 34% lower than the
dented 90% full in the midst of winter. same date a year ago on the eve of the start of
Since then, withdrawals from German tanks the war. Prices have fallen by 27% year on year
have resumed, but Germany’s tanks were 75.4% in just the last month as the end of the season
full as of February 7, the highest level in over five approaches.
years. All in all, tanks remain at levels not seen in Nevertheless, despite the recent fall in prices,
the last decade. the cost of gas remains approximately twice the
Ukraine also looks like it will get through the level of the average price prior to the start of the
heating season without mishap, where the tanks coronavirus pandemic.™

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 07 15•February•2023