French operator ready to fill storage this year

Despite the low stock level at the end of the winter just passed, French infrastructure operator GRT Gaz expects storage to be refilled by the next withdrawal season, the Engie subsidiary said June 29, following a joint summer outlook study with grid operator Terega.

But it cautioned there was a risk of low LNG send-outs and congestion that could frustrate this objective. With a little over three months to go, French storage sites are not yet half full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe. 

The head of Engie's storage subsidiary Camille Bonenfant-Jeanneney told NGW that in the first week of January, two thirds of national gas demand was covered by storage and winter ended with the facilities just 19% full, on average. "This level, although lower than those of the past two years, was not exceptional and did not presage any particular difficulty in restoring stocks during summer," GRT Gaz said. 

But GRT Gaz said market conditions – perhaps referring to high prices for LNG in Asia – "prompted shippers to postpone their injections. which started slower than usual. Thus, at the end of May, only 21% of injections to be performed over the summer had been completed."

Injections into storage facilities are limited by planned maintenance as well as by any congestion that could occur on the network, depending on gas flows. 

GRT Gaz said the study paid particular attention to the Atlantique and Lussagnet storage facilities. The latter represent nearly  two thirds of the volumes to be injected and are the most subject to maintenance restrictions and congestion. There is also the possibility of strong flows to Spain at the Pirineos point, combined with low LNG send-out at Montoir on the Atlantic coast and Fos on the Mediterranean coast. It said these factors "could generate congestion and constrain injections."

However, studies have shown that the flows required at Pirineos and at the LNG terminals to allow storage to be filled, while respecting the limits of the network, are in line with historical flows.

Separately the European Commission has approved the government's support measure for storage operators which fixes their revenues.