Gazprom aims to fill Russian gas storage sites to 72.662 Bcm ahead of winter

Russia's state-controlled Gazprom aims to fill its domestic storage sites to a level of 72.662 Bcm ahead of the next winter season, which would represent an all-time high storage volume in Russia.

In a statement late April 21, Gazprom said it would also increase its maximum gas storage withdrawal rate to 852.4 million cu m/d, also a record high.

Last year, Gazprom reached its target for filling domestic gas storage sites to 72.638 Bcm at the end of October and achieved a potential maximum withdrawal rate of 847.9 million cu m/d.

"Both of these figures mark all-time records for the domestic gas sector," Gazprom said, adding that the new 2022/2023 targets would also represent new record highs.

"The results of the past autumn/winter period serve as yet another reminder of the importance of stockpiling the required amounts of gas in underground storages and maintaining their high deliverability until the end of the cold season," it said.

Gazprom added that the working gas inventories in Belarus would amount to 1.09 Bcm and in Armenia 0.107 Bcm.

European storage

Gazprom made no mention of storage in Europe -- its former Germany-based subsidiary Gazprom Germania included units responsible for operating storage facilities in Germany and Austria.

The sites were left close to empty this winter before Gazprom said April 1 it had disposed of its wholly owned stake in Gazprom Germania to an unknown Russian company called Palmary.

However, the German government blocked the sale and brought Gazprom Germania under temporary state control, pledging to continue normal operations.

Under new proposed EU rules on storage, facilities are now considered "critical infrastructure" for ensuring security of supply, with the European Commission proposing a new mandatory certification of all storage system operators.

That, it said, would avoid potential risks resulting from "outside influence" over critical storage infrastructure, meaning non-certified operators would have to give up ownership or control of EU gas storage facilities.

"In addition, for a gas storage facility to close down its operations it would need to have an authorization from the national regulator," the EC said.

Member states are also required to fill storage sites to 80% capacity by Nov. 1 this year.

According to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe, the EU's gas storage sites were 30% full as of April 20.

The sustained high gas prices in Europe have been partly attributed to concern over refilling storage this summer as well as the Russia-Ukraine war risk premium and supply concerns.

The TTF front-month contract reached a record high of Eur212.15/MWh on March 8, according to Platts price assessments by S&P Global Commodity Insights.

The contract averaged Eur130/MWh in March and was last assessed on April 21 at Eur100.65/MWh.

Russian winter

Gazprom, meanwhile, noted that it had supplied domestic customers from storage at five-year high levels during December last year due to cold weather.

"Temperatures in December 2021 were below the normal. As a result of a cold snap, air temperatures dropped to an abnormally low minus 17 degrees Celsius -- nine degrees below the normal for the month," it said.

"The daily deliverability of Russian storage facilities in the last days of December was at its highest in the previous five years, while gas supplies to the domestic market from Gazprom's gas transmission system reached 1.656 Bcm/d," it said.

Gazprom added that the past heating season offered "further proof" that the winter period includes March, which is traditionally considered a spring month on the calendar.

"For two weeks in mid-March of 2022, temperatures stayed below normal and March 10 saw the average temperature fall to minus 11 degrees Celsius in the area covered by gas storage," it said.

Gazprom said that the total amount of gas supplied to Russia consumers in Q4 2021 and Q1 2022 hit a record high.

"Specifically, there was an increase in demand compared to the previous autumn/winter period on the part of the power, petrochemicals, cement, agrochemical and metals industries," it said.

"In October-March, as always, Gazprom fulfilled all of its obligations to domestic consumers and requests under export contracts."