November 2021 was the coldest year in Europe since 2016. Gas withdrawal from underground storage facilities amounted to almost 12 billion cubic meters. m – this is the highest indicator in the history of observations of the Gas Infrastructure Europe Association, which have been conducted since 2011.
The last record was set in 2016. Then the gas withdrawal was 11.26 billion cubic meters. m, reports “Interfax”. In 2020, the figure was at 8.85 billion. November 2021 is almost 2 ° C colder than the same month last year.
The level of gas reserves in underground storage facilities in Europe is 16 percentage points lower than the average for the last five years – it is almost 70% based on the results of the gas day on November 27. When gas extraction began a month and a half ago, the level of reserves was 13.7 pp below the five-year average.
Since November 22, all storage facilities in Western Europe associated with Gazprom: Germany, Austria and the Netherlands have been working for selection. Gas flow from LNG receiving terminals is 7.3 billion cubic meters. By 2020, the growth was 31%. However, the figure is lower than in November 2019, when gas receipts were 9.1 billion cubic meters. m.
Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of October instructed Gazprom to increase its reserves in UGS facilities in Europe after the company finishes pumping gas into Russian storage facilities. Gazprom announced the start of filling European storage facilities on November 9.
About the energy crisis – in Yuri Barsukov’s column “Burn the last cubic meter”.
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