By KYIV. Nov 7 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Belgium all switched to gas offtake from underground storage facilities during weekdays last week (November 3 and 4), according to Gas Infrastructure Europe. Nevertheless, across the EU as a whole, injection is still slightly higher than growing offtake.
The start of this year’s offtake season will be the latest in the history of GIE observations (since 2011). The previous record was set in 2013 (stocks began to decline on November 4).
Gazprom’s request for pumping Russian gas through Ukraine has not changed from the previous days and months.
The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, or GTSOU, has accepted booking from Gazprom to transport 42.4 million cubic meters of gas through the country on Monday, unchanged from the previous gas day, 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.
A delayed but unavoidable seasonal drop in temperatures has restored gas prices on the European market. The day-ahead contract (for Monday) at the TTF hub in the Netherlands closed at $583 per 1000 cubic meters, more than double the midweek price of $225.
Power generation from wind turbines in Europe for the five days of this week is up to 21% compared to an average of 18% for the week of October 24 to 30, the WindEurope association said.
The Nord Stream pipeline is completely shut down. The Siemens engines used for its operation are leaking oil, and this malfunction can only be repaired at the factory. This is only possible at the Montreal plant, and Canada has imposed sanctions on Gazprom. In addition, last week there was a depressurization of two strings of Nord Stream 1 and one of Nord Stream 2 near the Danish island of Bornholm.
Europe is set to complete the season of gas injection into underground gas storage facilities shortly and begin the net withdrawal of gas reserves accumulated for the winter.
Inventories in UGS facilities are currently at 95.17%, which comes to 102 bcm of active gas, an increase of 0.31 percentage points from the last reporting date, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data.
At the same time, Gazprom warned that "the load on Europe’s UGS facilities will be higher than in previous years due to the changed logistics and sources of gas supply to the European market."
European LNG terminals have increased their regasification capacity in response to lower temperatures. Since the beginning of November, their capacity utilization rate is 66%, compared to an average of 60% in October.
In the last reporting week, the U.S. dramatically increased the rate of gas injection into storage facilities. In the week ending October 28, 3 billion cubic meters of gas were accumulated, twice as much as in the previous week and overall again in line with the average injection rate this autumn.
At the same time, the current level of inventories is less than 73%, which is substantially below the reserves at UGS facilities in Europe and Russia,
U.S. UGS gas inventories are now only 11% above the minimum for the past five years, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy. The lag from the norm of the average level is down to 4%.
