A new stage of the annual repair campaign at the fields and gas transportation infrastructure has begun in Norway, and the exports of Europe's main supplier have collapsed. Together with it, gas injection into European storage facilities also fell. LNG imports are at the lowest level in almost a year.
At this rate of country downloads The EU does not fit into the filling of UGS by 90% by October. However, earlier in Brussels lowered the limits in order not to provoke stock speculators. At the same time, the European Union may find itself in a more vulnerable position this winter.In Norway, a new stage of repair campaigns in the North Sea has begun, and gas production and exports have declined sharply. This week, Europe's main supplier has reduced the supply of gas abroad to 255 million cubic meters per day, while this month it reached 341 million cubic meters, according to the Norwegian operator GASSCO.
The drop in supplies immediately affected the injection of gas into the storage facilities of the EU countries. On August 27, according to GIE, it sank to 225 million cubic meters per day. This is the lowest since May 21, and it is more than 35% below the monthly average. Prior to that, in August, reserves were replenished by an average of 350 million cubic meters per day.
One of the biggest victims was Germany. There, the average injection of 82 million cubic meters per day in August fell to 43 million cubic meters on August 27. This is explained not only by Norway's high share in the German market, but also by the fact that the Norwegian state-owned company Equinor owns UGS facilities in Germany.
Repair campaign in Norway will last until mid-September. Despite the fact that LNG imports to the countries The EU remains the lowest in the last 11 months — 304 million cubic meters per day in August, according to GIE. In such a situation, the European Union will need two months to fill the storage up to 90%. Now they are filled by 76.6% (almost 83 billion cubic meters). However, this year in Brussels decided to reduce the mandatory minimum filling of UGS and set it at 83%, which must be achieved by each country EU with storage from October to December.
The new rules will allow The EU will fulfill its obligations, while the European countries themselves will be in a more vulnerable position this winter. On the one hand, the EU expects continued growth in LNG supplies from the United States. American factories, launching new capacities, continue to set records.
On the other hand, the last heating season showed that the warm winters in Europe have passed, and windlessness further increases the demand for gas to cover the shortage of electricity due to the shutdown of wind farms. An example would be the decision of the European Commission to postpone the complete abandonment of Russian gas from 2027 to 2028. Brussels expects that by this time the American and Qatari LNG plants will add even more capacity, production will begin in the Romanian sector of the Black Sea and new projects will compensate for the loss of Russian volumes, and Europe itself will reduce gas consumption due to the transition to electricity.
In the meantime, gas on European exchanges costs about $ 390 per thousand cubic meters. More than twice as expensive as the pre-crisis five-year plan.