By KYIV. Dec 5 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The request for transit of Russian gas through Ukraine was little changed from previous days and months.
Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System Operator (GTSOU) has accepted a request from Gazprom for Monday to transport 42.4 million cubic meters of gas through the country, about the same as the previous day, the Ukrainian company reported.
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.
Europe is increasing the rate at which it is using gas from its underground storage facilities, with offtake hitting a new high for the season on Friday.
Spot prices for gas in Europe remain high amid cold weather and a drop in wind power generation.
Wind power’s contribution to electricity generation across the EU fell to an average of 10% last week from an average of 18% in the week from November 21 to 27, when the daily figure went as high as 22.4%, data from WindEurope show.
Contracts for day-ahead delivery on the TTF hub in the Netherlands closed at $1,454 per 1,000 cubic meters, and the price of January futures was $1,477. Prices in Asia also rose. February futures on the JKM Platts (Japan Korea Marker) index, which reflects spot market prices for gas delivered to Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan, climbed to $1,260.
The Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Europe was shut down in August because of problems with maintenance due to sanctions, and in September explosions ripped holes in both strings of the first Nord Stream pipeline and one string of Nord Stream 2 near the Danish island of Bornholm.
Reserves in underground gas storage (UGS) facilities in Europe are down to 91.56% of capacity, but this was still 10.6 percentage points higher than the average on the same date in the past five years, Gas Infrastructure Europe reported.
Reserves fell by 0.45 percentage points on December 2, the biggest drop since the start of the offtake season. On Saturday, December 3, the last reporting date, the decrease was predictably smaller at 0.3 percentage points, but this was several times greater than the previous weekend.
The start of the offtake season this year, November 14, was the latest since GIE began keeping records in 2011. The previous latest start was in 2013, when reserves began to decrease on November 4. Gazprom has warned that the "burden on Europe’s UGS will be greater than in previous years due to changed logistics and sources of gas supplies for the European market."
European liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminals have been operating at an average of 69% of capacity since the beginning of December, the same as in November. The heavy LNG imports are reducing gas reserves in terminals’ receiving tanks, the level of which has dropped by 6% from the November average.
The state of reserves in UGS in the United States is becoming increasingly important for the world market. The country is ramping up gas exports, foremost to Europe, while production is growing at a slower pace.
The country’s UGS facilities, like those in Europe, have switched to active offtake. In the latest reporting week, ended November 25, offtake from UGS totaled 2.3 bcm, which is far more than the usual for this time of year.
Reserves now total about 72% of capacity, which is 2% below the average for the past five years, data from the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) showed. This is significantly lower than reserves in UGS in Europe and Russia.
The EIA now expects reserves in UGS to drop by 60 bcm this winter, which is the average for the past five years. By the end of March, gas reserves in storage will total 40 bcm, 8% less than the five-year average.
