Gazprom booking via Ukraine is 42.4 mcm

KYIV. Oct 10 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, or GTSOU, has accepted booking from Gazprom today to transport 42.4 million cubic meters of gas through the country on Monday, unchanged from the previous gas day, data from GTSOU show.

Capacity was requested only through one of two entry points into Ukraine’s Gas Transmission System, the Sudzha metering station. A request was not accepted through the Sokhranivka metering station.

GTSOU has declared a force majeure with respect to acceptance of gas for transit through Sokhranivka, claiming that it cannot control the Novopskov compressor station. Ukraine has also said that if gas continued to be fed from Russia to the Sokhranivka station, amounts would be reduced accordingly at the exit points from Ukraine’s gas transport system. The route through Sokhranivka had provided transit of more than 30 mcm of gas per day.

The weather situation in Europe in early October is favorable for the consumer. According to forecasts, temperatures in the first twenty days of the month will be about two degrees lower than a year ago (while in the previous month the situation was reversed – it was two degrees cooler than last year).

Mild weather and measures aimed at saving gas can delay the start of the gas offtake season from storage facilities. In Europe, it begins on average around 20 October.

A mild Indian summer is continuing in Europe. Amid positive trends, the day-ahead contract at the TTF hub in the Netherlands fell to $855 per 1,000 cubic meters during the week, while the contract for Monday stands at $971.

In Asia, the most expensive winter futures contract for February on the JKM Platts index (Japan Korea Marker; reflects the spot market price for gas delivered to Japan, South Korea, China and Taiwan) now stands at $1,374.

The Nord Stream pipeline is completely shut down. The Siemens engines used for its operation are leaking oil, and this malfunction can only be repaired at the factory. This is only possible at the Montreal plant, and Canada has imposed sanctions on Gazprom. In addition, last week there was a depressurization of two strings of Nord Stream 1 and one of Nord Stream 2 near the Danish island of Bornholm.

European liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving terminals are operating at an average of 61% of capacity in October, compared with 59% in September and August, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe indicate.

Europe continues injection into underground storage facilities. At the end of August, the average level of reserves in underground storage facilities in the region reached the minimum target level of 80%. Since then, there has been a slight decline in the pumping rate. European storage facilities typically transition from net injection to net offtake around October 20.

Inventories in UGS facilities are currently at 90.95%, up 0.31 percentage points from the last reporting date, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data.

Gas inventories in UGS facilities have currently exceeded 80% in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Spain.

Meanwhile, Bulgaria, Hungary, and Latvia are lagging. Bulgaria could reach 80% this week, while Hungary requires some more time.

The gas reserves at the Incukalns UGS facility in Latvia are the lowest in the EU at around 54%, despite this UGS facility being responsible for reserve gas supplies to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Finland.

The U.S. has boosted injection gas into storage, households have stopped using air conditioning, and there is no immediate demand for heating, thereby allowing more injection of gas into UGS facilities. UGS are full because Freeport LNG terminal has ceased exports following an accident. Also in September-October, the Cove Point plant with a capacity of 5.25 million tonnes per year will stop for scheduled repairs for 17 days, the volumes exported through it will also remain on the domestic market. Repairs are also ahead at other LNG plants.

The rate of injection increased during the last reporting week, with 3.6 billion cubic meters accumulated compared to 2.9 bcm on average over the previous reporting weeks.

The current level of inventories is around 77%, which is substantially below the reserves at UGS facilities in Europe and Russia, which stand at over 90%.

U.S. UGS gas inventories are now only 7.4% above the minimum for the past five years, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy. The lag from the norm of the average level is 8%.