BAKU, Azerbaijan, Apr.12
By Leman Zeynalova - Trend:
On 30 September 2020 the average EU storage filling rate was slightly lower than on the same day of 2019 (94.7 percent vs. 96.9 percent), and on 31 December the average filling rate was much lower than at the end of 2019 (74 percent vs. 88.2 percent), Trend reports with reference to the European Commission.
This huge difference was due to on one hand the uncertain outcome of negotiations of gas transit agreements of Russian gas in the final months of 2019, resulting in security of supply related gas storing, whereas in 2020 no such factor played a role, allowing for lower filling rates and storage costs.
On the other hand, spot gas prices followed an increasing trend in Q4 2020, and as in earlier injections periods spot prices was lower, the average costs of stored gas was probably lower in Q4 2020 compared to spot and forward contracts, prompting an intensive recourse to storage withdrawals. On EU average, net storage withdrawals made during the fourth quarter of 2020 were equivalent to 20.7 percent of storage capacity, which was much higher than that of 8.7 percent in the same period of 2019.
Although storage levels were generally lower in Q4 2020 comparing with the same days in Q4 2019, by comparing Q4 2020 levels of the five-year average of 2014-2018 it is obvious that actual storage levels were close to the upper end of the range at the beginning of the 2020 gas year. Increasing withdrawals helped in putting a lid on wholesale spot gas prices, as LNG imports decreased significantly in Q4 2020 year-on-year, similarly to most of the pipeline imports, creating a need on the supply side to use storages.
On 30 September 2020 filling rates across the EU Member States were generally high, ranging from 90.1 percent in Austria to 98.7 percent in Portugal, reaching 94.7 percent on EU average. On 31 December however, differentials in filling rate were higher; the lowest filling rate could be observed in Croatia (57.8 percent) and the highest in Sweden (94.7 percent), though in this latter country storage capacities are not significant and no change in filling rates were reported during the quarter. The EU average filling rate was 74 percent on 31 December 2020, whereas in Portugal, Romania, France, Netherlands and Czechia filling rates fell in the range of 60-70 percent.
The biggest decreases in storage filling rates (highest withdrawals) could be observed in Portugal and Croatia (both 37 percent), France (29 percent), Romania (28 percent), Poland and Italy (both 24 percent), whereas in Denmark, Bulgaria and Slovakia filling rates decreased by less than 10 percent over Q4 2020 In the EU the average filling rate went down by 21 percent.
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