Gazprom predicts peak gas demand in Europe this year
Based on Gazprom’s forecast – posted on the company’s Telegram channel, pumping of as much gas as has never been pumped in one summer season before will be needed to replenish reserves at Europe’s underground storage facilities in 2022
"Since January 7th, 2022, reserves in the European underground storage facilities have reached their record lows over a long period of observations. As of February 26th, they were 0.6bn cubic metres less than the minimum indicator for this date," Gazprom said.
“Gas extraction from the European underground storage facilities usually continues until late March or mid-April. Accordingly, extraction now relies on the volumes pumped into Europe's storage facilities back in 2020, and earlier. To replenish gas reserves in the European storage facilities by next winter, pumping of as much gas as has never been pumped in one summer season before will be needed,” the company added.
As reported, this is ‘a very serious challenge, taking into account – among other things – the daily limits of pumped volumes which strictly rely on technological capabilities of the storage facilities’. In addition, Gazprom said ‘the total volume of gas available on the European market strongly depends on demand in the growing Asian market’.
