MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th January, 2023) The amount of gas reserves in Europe's underground storage facilities (UGS) has dropped below 75%, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data.
European UGS are filled by 74.5%, containing a total of 81.2 billion cubic meters of gas, as of January 28 gas day, which ended at 04:00 GMT on January 29, after losing 1.14 percentage points in a day, which is 20.49 percentage points higher than the average for the past five years as of that date, the data showed.
On January 28, 2022, Europe's gas storage capacity was almost half that level, namely at 38.93%, according to the operator.
Russia was the largest supplier of natural gas to the EU, accounting for nearly 40% of the bloc's demand in 2021, giving Moscow enormous leverage over the EU energy sector.
Western countries have been seeking ways to limit Russia's income from oil and gas exports, as well as their dependence on Russian fuel since the country launched a military operation in Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Earlier in January, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU managed to replace 80% of pipeline gas supplied by Russia, by reducing domestic demand and increasing supplies of liquefied natural gas from the United States.�
