Russian President Vladimir Putin asked the head of Gazprom on Wednesday to start shipping natural gas to European storage facilities as soon as Russia finished replenishing its stockpile. This may be after November 8th.
European gas futures in the Dutch property transfer hub (TTF) are up 365 percent since the start of the year, driven by falling inventories and rising demand for gas as economies recover from the COVID-19 crisis.
The head of the Kremlin-controlled energy giant Alexei Miller said on Wednesday during a televised government meeting that Gazprom will reach the planned level on November 1 of more than 72 billion cubic meters of gas in domestic storage facilities. The replenishment of domestic stocks is scheduled to end on November 8.
“Once we finish pumping gas to UGS (Underground Gas Storage) in Russia, we will start pumping gas to UGS in Europe,” Miller said. According to Vladimir Putin, this should lead to an improvement in the situation in the European energy market.
According to Eurostat data, Russia was responsible for 43.4% in 2020. Gas supplies to the EU.
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Russian gas in the European Union
In a recent analysis, the Polish Economic Institute noted that gas stocks in the European Union in July 2021 were the lowest since 2010. Compared to record-breaking 2020, they are down 33 percent. “The shortage of raw materials may have serious consequences if the upcoming winter turns out to be long and severe” – noted PIE representatives.
Analysts explained that the decline in gas stocks is the effect of reducing supplies from Russia and increasing gas purchases by Asians. Gazprom currently extracts most of the gas in the past 10 years, but current production is expected to meet internal needs to a greater extent. According to PIE, the Russians want to avoid the situation that occurred last year, when a harsh winter caused an above-average drain on domestic stocks.
“Polish gas stocks are high compared to other EU countries. We were the only country (excluding Croatia) with higher reserves in July of this year than in 2020 (by 0.3 percent)” – reported PIE. At that time, the level of filling in our warehouses exceeded 90 percent, and now it is about 97 percent.
Main image source: stock struggle
