Page 150 - RusRPTJul24

The refill was the second-slowest since 2012 and well below the prior ten-year seasonal average of 206 TWh, or 2.9 TWh per day.
Europe emerged from the warm winter of 2023/24 with a record amount of gas still in storage, so a relatively slow refill was required to ensure space did not run out before the onset of winter 2024/25.
But the unusually slow start to the refill season has already whittled away some of the surplus and reduced the probability of space running out.
Stocks were 219 TWh (+37% or +1.57 standard deviations) above the prior ten-year average on June 9, but the surplus had narrowed from 277 TWh (+70% or +2.03 standard deviations) when winter ended on March 31.
Storage was already 72% full on June 9, which was 17 percentage points above the ten-year average, but the surplus had narrowed from 22 percentage points on March 31.
Based on seasonal patterns over the last decade, inventories are on course to reach 1,223 TWh before the end of the refill season.
This exceeds the technical capacity of the system, which is around 1,145 TWh, so refilling will have to remain slow for some weeks or months more.
But the projected end-of-summer fill has already fallen steadily from 1,280 TWh on March 31 and the probability of overfilling has declined sharply.
9.1.2 Automotive sector news
Sales of new cars in Russia soared by 68% in January-May 2024 to almost 700,000 units, Deputy Industry and Trade Minister Albert Karimov said at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).
"We registered an increase in the domestic market of new cars by almost 70% in January-May year-on-year. The market grew overall by 68%, with slightly less than 700,000 cars sold," he said.
According to figures provided by the ministry, 591,000 passenger cars were sold in Russia in the first five months of this year (up by 82%), 50,100 light commercial vehicles (up by 45%), 48,800 trucks (up by half a percent), and 9,100 buses (up by 19%).
In May, almost 146,300 new cars were sold (up by 58% year-on-year and
150 RUSSIA Country Report July 2024 www.intellinews.com