Experts: Europe is stockpiling gas due to risks from sanctions against Russia.
European companies are rapidly filling up underground gas storage facilities due to the risk that new sanctions against Russia could impact the supply of green fuel, according to Maria Belova, research director at Vygon Consulting.
Analyst Maria Belova asserts that under normal market conditions, gasoline prices affect pumping rates, but the current situation is anything but normal.
"The European Commission is working on sanctions packages, so when assessing gas risks, as well as adjusting for hostile factors and the need for storage levels in underground gas storage facilities, companies are storing gas in a fast-track mode," Belova noted.
Companies continue to prepare for winter and pump gas into storage facilities. Data from the European Gas Infrastructure (GIE) shows that the average fill level of underground storage facilities on the morning of June 8th had exceeded 50%.
Thus, in three months, Europe has added nearly 26 billion cubic meters to its reserves. The total volume of natural gas in underground storage now exceeds 53 billion cubic meters. To reach the target of 80% of Europe's reserves, approximately 30 billion cubic meters more will need to be pumped before the start of the heating season – around November 1st.
Gas pumping rates generally did not decrease after a series of European companies refused to pay for Russian gas under the new plan. At the end of May, Gazprom stopped supplying Gasum to Finland and GasTerra to the Netherlands, and on June 1st – Shell Energy Europe to Germany and Orsted to Denmark.
Following the start of the Russian military's special operation to demilitarize and defascize Ukraine, the West intensified sanctions pressure on Moscow. Many countries announced freezes on Russian assets and called for abandoning Russian energy. All of this became a problem for the US and Europe, causing fuel and food prices to skyrocket.
