Ukraine. EU Storage Withdrawals Begin

Ukraine started the gas storage stocks drawdown at the start of November, with zero injections on the weekend of November 2-3 and injections of only 43.63 GWh on November 1, as NGW reported at the time, according to data published by Gas Infrastructure Europe's transparency platform. That was the national high-water mark, when total volumes were 227.4459 TWh (20.86bn m3).

There is a similar story across the European Union, as the cold weather continues and prices remain low but higher than they were when the gas was bought and injected. There, the high-water mark was a few days later on November 4, when storage was 97.71% full, holding 1082.1 TWh across the region. On November 10 it was down to 1080.23 TWh.

Analysts at Marex Spectron were predicting strong gas demand in Europe, with the ridge of pressure over the North Atlantic  driving progressively colder air across Europe. Less wind and strong carbon prices will yield better margins for gas relative to coal, it said late October. Poor economic conditions though will limit industrial gas demand, it said.