It was noted at the briefing that Gazprom’s production complex has been operating in the autumn/winter maximum mode since December 22.

This is caused by abnormally low temperatures with daily averages of up to minus 17 degrees Celsius in the areas covered by the UGSS. This is 9 degrees below the climate normal for this period. On the night of December 25 to 26, the temperature in St. Petersburg was the lowest in 19 years at minus 23 degrees.

In order to provide reliable gas supplies to its consumers, Gazprom has, inter alia, brought the daily amounts of gas withdrawn from Russian underground gas storage facilities to their highest level in the last five years. The volumes of gas supplied to Russian consumers from Gazprom’s gas transmission system have been reaching 1,656 million cubic meters per day. Also during this period, on December 23, an all-time record was set for daily gas supplies from Russia to China. Meanwhile, European consumers are receiving gas in full, as requested and in accordance with the existing contractual obligations.

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, working gas inventories in European UGS facilities on December 24 were below the level of last year by 21.1 billion cubic meters. As much as 43.1 per cent of the gas injected this year has already been withdrawn.

On December 24, Ukraine hit an all-time low for gas reserves in its UGS facilities at 14.37 billion cubic meters, which is 9.9 billion cubic meters below last year’s figure and already 1 billion cubic meters fewer than at the start of the injection period in April this year.