BAKU, Azerbaijan, May 25. Europe’s goal to achieve a target of 80 percent of gas storage capacity could be endangered, if Russian flows stop, the experts at Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said, Trend reports via the Institute.
"The whole Europe, including Turkey, has received 20 billion cubic meters per day higher than in 2021. We might see a significant year-on-year increase, especially if Russian flows will maintain at least at current levels, and May imports are going to be much higher," the experts estimate.
However, ruble payment issues, physical supplies via Ukraine, disruptions, and other uncertainties may pose a hazard to Europe’s storage target.
“Currently, the flows from almost all pipelines are pretty high, such as those from North Africa, Norway, as well as the flows from Azerbaijan via Turkey-Greece border, which are almost at full capacity – about 30 million cubic meters per day,” the experts say.
They said that as of May 17, around 42.1 billion cubic meters were in Europe’s gas storage, which is 7 billion cubic meters higher year-on-year.
"The fact that 2022 winter was quite mild, compared to the last year, contributed to this, since not that much was drawn out of storage. Also, the stock build also has been much faster since April," said the experts.
They noted that the idea of sanctioning Russian gas supplies seems to go away, because a handful of European countries will feel this impact.
“The pipeline flows Russia have already decreased about 32 percent year-on-year, which is about 18 billion cubic meters drop - from 57.8 billion cubic meters to 39.6 billion cubic meters. However, the target of reducing it by two-thirds this year without any dramatic cut-off does not look very realistic,” the experts concluded.
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