Frost restored Gazprom’s position in the European market
The cold winter in Europe has restored Gazprom’s position in the EU gas market. According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, less than half of the gas left in underground European storage facilities, and this is the worst indicator during 5 years. Currently, the underground storage facilities in Europe are filled by an average of 49%, and during a day they are empty by another half a percent.
In Germany, the EU’s largest economy, gas reserves fell to 42.44%, and in France – to 39.65%. In these two states, which are, in fact, the locomotives of the European economy, the situation is the most difficult.
About 40% of the gas left in storage of Croatia, Belgium and Romania. The largest storage capacity is in Sweden (94.74%), the UK (74.17%), in other countries – about 50%.
Storage facilities were emptied due to the cold weather – in Europe there were frost of about minus 20 degrees in the first decade of January. Even in Spain it was minus 20 degrees. In Poland, for the first time in 11 years, the frost was up to minus 28 degrees, which led to rapid gas consumption – half of the country’s storage capacity was emptied by February 3.
The demand for gas caused a sharp increase in its cost – wholesale gas prices in Europe added 10-18% per day in the severe frost days and rose to $300 per thousand cubic meters.
In January, Gazprom delivered a record volume of 19.4 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe and Turkey. Deliveries increased by 1.5 times compared to January last year. Russia increased gas exports to Germany in January by 32.4%, to Italy – by 3.2 times, to Turkey – by 20.8%, to France – by 77.3%, to Holland – by 21.2%, and to Poland – by 89.9%.
Gas demand recovery in Europe and the consolidation of Gazprom’s position in the EU market are good news for Central Asian gas producers, and, in particular, Turkmenistan.
Earlier, the Russian media has reported that the Russian gas giant plans to increase purchases of natural gas in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan in the future.
