Page 44 - RusRPTJul22

However, extra supplies of LNG from the US and Qatar combined with a relatively mild winter meant that the EU scraped through the season, which ended on March 31. European tanks were still 26.3% full on that day, well ahead of the 10%-12% that analysts feared might be left.
The distribution of gas storage in Europe is not even. The Polish gas tanks, for example, are already 96% full and a new pipeline bringing gas from Norway to Poland is due to come online at the start of October, making Poland the first European country to entirely break its dependence on Russian gas. Portugal’s tanks were also over 90% full by June, although Portugal relies heavily on LNG imports and is not an integral part of the European gas pipeline network.
The UK, Czechia and Denmark gas tanks are also just over 70% full, putting them in comfortable positions. However, many other EU countries have far less, with Sweden at the bottom of the list with only 10% and Croatia and Bulgaria both with less than 30%.
However, the key countries of German and Italy have 55.95% and 53.9% respectively and are by far the biggest consumers of gas. As Germany is home to the largest gas tanks in Europe it acts as a EU distribution hub for gas. It already has enough to meet its domestic needs in this coming winter and the excess can be distributed to other EU countries as demand requires. Between them German and Italy already account for more than 40% of all the gas in storage in Europe.
Ukraine has even bigger storage facilities and is a major source of gas during the winter, but its tanks are only 18.6% full as of June 16. Still, even at low levels the gas in storage in Ukraine is already equal to more than 10% of all gas stored in Europe.
Gazprom cut off
Gazprom reported on June 14 it was reducing gas supply via Nord Stream 1 to 100mn cubic metres per day, down from a previous plan of 167 mcm per day. Russia said that the technical watchdog Rostekhnadzor had ordered a temporary halt as parts to repair some Siemens equipment were unavailable due to Western sanctions. As a result, only three gas-pumping units remain in operation, it said.
Gazprom’s “technical problems” come after it halted deliveries to some European countries after companies in Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Poland refused to pay for natural gas in rubles, as demanded by the Russian government.
Gas transit to Europe via Ukraine has also been caught up in the war and deliveries via Sokhranivka in Ukraine that normally account for a third of the total were taken offline in May as the war affected Ukraine’s gas transit business for the first time. The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine (GTSOU) said it had taken the station offline as it was now in Russian occupied territory.
44 RUSSIA Country Report October 2020 www.intellinews.com