Europe is finishing winter with the best result in terms of gas reserves

Alexey Belogoryev, Deputy Principal Director on Energy Studies of the Institute for Energy and Finance, commented to the Prime Economic Information Agency on the changes in gas reserves in underground gas storage facilities and the end of the heating period in the EU.

Europe is finishing the heating season with the best result in terms of gas reserves in underground storage facilities (UGS), despite some fluctuations in the indicator, Alexey Belogoryev commented to RIA Novosti.

On March 18, European UGS facilities switched to net withdrawal for the first time since January, but already on March 20 they returned to net injection mode. Then, on March 22, Europe began stockpiling gas again, a trend that lasted five days, signaling the end of the heating season in the region.

As the expert explained, the end of the heating period in the EU is often taken as the achievement of the minimum level of gas reserves in UGSFs. As a rule, it falls on the second half of March (in 2022 - March 19), in rare cases this moment is delayed until April (in 2021 - April 19). After that, the days of preferential withdrawal and injection of gas may alternate for some time due to unstable weather conditions in different countries, but the magnitude of the change in both directions remains relatively small, he noted.

“It is worth noting that Europe is quite diverse in terms of weather conditions. Therefore, for example, in Italy, the minimum level of gas reserves was passed on March 17. In general, the 2022/2023 heating season in the EU can already be considered almost completed,” Belogoryev concluded.