By KYIV. Dec 19 (Interfax-Ukraine) – A cold first half of December has boosted gas offtake from Europe’s underground storage facilities. Offtake reached new highs since records began 12 years ago on three days last week, December 13, 14 and 15.
The weather is set to change radically this week, with rain and a thaw forecast, however there is nothing odd about such changes in the weather at this time of year.
Gazprom’s request for pumping Russian gas through Ukraine has not changed markedly from the previous days and months.
The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, or GTSOU, has accepted a booking from Gazprom today to transport 42.4 million cubic meters of gas through the country, as on Sunday, data from GTSOU show.
Capacity was requested only through one of two entry points into Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System, the Sudzha metering station. A request was not accepted through the Sokhranivka metering station.
Gas prices in the European market have corrected on anticipation of milder weather. The day-ahead contract at the Dutch TTF gas hub in the Netherlands closed at $1,279 per thousand cubic meters.
Wind turbines generated 13% of the EU’s electricity on average last week following 10% on average in the previous week, December 5-11, according to data from WindEurope. The thaw currently under way has increased the share of wind generation to 21%.
The Nord Stream pipeline has been fully shut down owing to a number of sanctions-related problems regarding equipment maintenance. At the end of September, two lines of Nord Stream 1 and one line of Nord Stream 2 ruptured near the Danish island of Bornholm.
European inventories in underground gas storage facilities are currently 84.15%, or 9.5 percentage points above the average indicator for the past five years, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
Gas inventories are falling rapidly, however much Europe tries to save fuel. Gas offtake from the region’s UGS facilities since December 6 has exceeded the average figures for the past five years, not including weekends, when demand and offtake decline. The current level of inventory is below the same date in 2011 and 2019.
Reserves "thinned" by about 0.43 percentage point during the gas day on December 17.
The beginning of offtake season on November 14 this year was the latest since Gas Infrastructure Europe began monitoring in 2011, with the previous latest date coming on November 4, 2013. However, Gazprom has also warned that "the load on UGS facilities in Europe will be higher than in previous years owing to the changed logistics and sources of gas supplies to the European market."
European LNG terminals have been operating at an average capacity-utilization of 69% since the beginning of December, as in November. LNG inventories at terminals have been declining, 10% below the November average, implying that new shipments of LNG have been arriving to Europe more slowly than the market is consuming.
Germany opened the Wilhelmshaven LNG terminal, its first, on December 17. Gas from there will not start to enter the supply network for a few days yet.
The state of gas in UGS facilities in the United States is of increasing importance for the global market, and the country is actively increasing gas exports, primarily to Europe, while production is rising at a slower pace.
The U.S. has joined Europe in withdrawing gas from its UGS facilities. The latest reporting week ending December 9 saw 1.4 billion cubic meters of gas extracted from UGS facilities.
The current level of inventories is around 71%, which is just lower than average for the past five years; nevertheless, the figure is substantially lower than inventories at UGS facilities in Europe and in Russia, according to the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration.
The EIA currently expects UGS stocks to drop by 60 billion cubic meters this winter to the average for the last five years. Natural gas volumes in storage facilities should total 40 bcm by the end of March, which would be 8% below the average for five years.
