BAKU, Azerbaijan, February 16. Gas consumption in the EU countries in January 2023 decreased by 19 percent year-on-year, to 40 billion cubic meters (bcm), due to higher-than-usual temperature, Trend reports, citing the latest gas market overview from the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).
At the same time, pipeline gas imports to the EU fell by more than a third over the last month, the report noted.
Mainly, gas demand in Germany in the reporting period fell by 17 percent to 9.3 bcm, in Italy - by 22 percent to 7.6 bcm, in France - by 17 percent to 4.8 bcm, in Spain - by 29 percent to 2.7 bcm. Meanwhile, the UK reduced gas consumption by 16 percent in January 2023 - to 7.4 bcm.
Pipeline gas imports to the EU in January amounted to only 12.7 bcm, which is 13 percent lower than in December 2022, and 35 percent less year-on-year.
According to the GECF, supplies from Russia accounted for only 2 bcm, and from Norway - 8 bcm. Algerian gas supplies accounted for 2 bcm, and the remaining volumes came from Azerbaijan and Libya.
LNG supplies to Europe in January, on the contrary, increased by 5.7 percent to 12.15 million tons.
Meanwhile, according to the report, Europe's gas production dropped by 5 percent year-on-year, however, increased by 3 percent month-on-month to stand at 17.6 bcm.
"The month-on-month increase was driven by the rise in output of Norway, UK, and Netherlands, whose production stood at 11.1 bcm, 3.4 bcm and 1.5 bcm, respectively," the GECF added.