This year will be the warmest one for the European countries, the biggest gas consumers, which reduces their demand in gas, which they used to store. This will be a guarantee of possible problems caused by Russian gas deliveries through Ukraine, writes Bloomberg.
According to the British Met Office service, in some cities of England this year will be the warmest since 1659, when collection of data about weather has started.
There situation is the same in Germany, which receives 37% of gas from Russia. On October 26, 2014 the gas resources in the biggest British storage Rough has reached the record volume. The resources in Germany are at the highest level since 2009 and according to Gas Infrastructure Europe, by November 30, 2014 they totaled 20.05 billion cub.m., which up 20% against average index during the past five years.
Russia ensures 30% of European demand in gas, about half of which is exported via the pipelines through Ukraine. Ukraine does not receive gas since June, when Gasprom has stopped transportation, because of the debt. Now Gasprom will deliver gas to Ukraine on the pre-payment basis.
Ukrainian Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Yurii Prodan said today that this week the country intends to make pre-payment and until the end of this year it will buy 1 billion cub.m. Earlier Prodan said that the volume of purchase will depend on Ukraine’s needs.
Europe has enough gas resources to do without gas deliveries from Russia within three months, reads the recent report of the Economist Intelligence Unit.