Expert: Europe stockpiles gas due to risks from anti-Russia sanctions
European companies are rapidly filling up underground gas storage facilities due to the risk that new sanctions against Russia could affect supplies of the green fuel, said 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 far from normal.
“The European Commission is working on sanctions packages, so, when assessing the gas risks, as well as adjusting to hostile factors and the need for reserve levels in underground gas storage, companies are storing gas in an accelerated mode,” Belova noted.
Companies continue to prepare for winter and pump gas into storage facilities. Data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) shows that the average filling level of “underground storage” exceeded 50% as of the morning of June 8.
So, in three months, Europe has replenished its reserves by almost 26 billion cubic metres. The total volume of gas in underground storage facilities now exceeds 53 billion cubic metres. To reach the 80% European target, about 30 billion cubic metres more will have to be pumped before the heating season starts - around November 1.
Gas injection rates have not generally fallen after a number 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 1 - Shell Energy Europe to Germany and Orsted to Denmark.
After the start of the Russian military's special operation to demilitarize and defascize Ukraine, the West increased sanctions pressure on Moscow. Many countries announced freezing Russian assets and called for abandonment of Russian energy. All this became a problem for the United States and Europe, causing sharp increases in fuel and food prices.