Dear Mr. President,
It is the number one objective for Gazprom to ensure that Russian gas facilities operate successfully and confidently throughout the heating season. At the start of the period of withdrawal of gas from underground gas storage facilities, our working gas inventories totaled 72,638 million cubic meters with a daily deliverability of 847.9 million cubic meters. Both the working gas reserves and the daily deliverability are at all-time highs for our country.
There has been a sharp drop in air temperatures across Russia since the second week of December. On December 23, the average temperature in all regions covered by the Unified Gas Supply System stood at minus 17 degrees Celsius, which is 9.3 degrees below the climate normal. All these days, the levels of gas supplies to domestic consumers and withdrawal from Russia’s UGS facilities have been at their highest in a decade since 2012.
As usual, Gazprom has been providing reliable gas supplies to our consumers in Russia and abroad. We have been fulfilling all of our contractual export obligations under long-term bilateral contracts in accordance with requests.
As of today, a total of 12,360 million cubic meters of gas, or 17 per cent of the working gas reserves, has been withdrawn from Russia’s UGS facilities. By now, the facilities are 83 per cent full. In November and December, Mr. President, the Company followed your instruction and injected its own gas into European UGS facilities. By the end of December, we will have injected 1 billion cubic meters of gas into these facilities.
Every day between December 21 and 25, European operators registered daily records for gas withdrawal from Europe’s UGS facilities. Notably, they have a long history of observation. Today, Europe’s facilities are depleted by 44 per cent. Germany’s UGS facilities are depleted by 47 per cent.
It should be said that the reserves in Europe’s facilities are 21 billion cubic meters below the level observed in the same period of last year. This is 28 per cent, or almost a third, less. It is a sizeable deficit of gas in UGS facilities, and it affects the European gas market significantly.
Gazprom has fulfilled all of its obligations under the contract for gas transit across Ukraine. The planned amount was 40 billion cubic meters of gas. By today, we have transited as much as 41.5 billion cubic meters through Ukraine.
On December 24, Ukraine entered the period of historically low gas reserves in its UGS facilities. Today, Ukraine’s gas reserves are lower than 14 billion cubic meters. This is 10 billion below the level recorded at the end of last December.
Dear Mr. President,
At 12:58 pm Moscow time today, Gazprom finished filling the second string of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline with gas. Now, both the first and second strings of Nord Stream 2 are under working pressure and fully ready for operation.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline has a design capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year and is the longest offshore gas pipeline in the world. It is 1,234 kilometers long.
Dear Mr. President, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is ready to go!
