EurOil: Europe ramps up gas withdrawals

European gas consumers sharply increased gas withdrawals from storage facilities at the end of January, more than tripling them versus the level in the first half of the month, according to data published by Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

In the January 19-25 period, average gas withdrawals in the EU reached 693mn cubic metres per year, according to GIE. During that period, gas storage utilisation dropped by more than five percentage points from 80.1% to 74.8%. As of January 25, there was 76.7bn cubic metres of gas in storage.

In comparison, withdrawals averaged only 402.4 mcm per day in December, and only 213 mcm per day in the first half of January. Vedomosti reported on January 27 that in the previous week, the quantity of gas in storage fell by 10 bcm. Around the same amount was withdrawn during the whole of December.

Falling prices in Europe led to some European buyers getting outcompeted for cargoes by Asian customers, Vedomosti reported. The front-month TTF price was $600 per 1,000 cubic metres – in comparison, prices in Asia exceeded $700 per 1,000 cubic metres on the same day. Asia has traditionally offered a premium LNG price versus Europe, but this situation reversed last year as the European energy crisis unfolded. Now, finally, the situation has returned to the status quo.

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