Russia's Gazprom has begun preparations for injecting gas into its underground storage facilities ahead of the start of the next winter season in October, it said Wednesday.
The company plans to have stockpiled at least 72.3 Bcm of gas over the summer season (April-September) -- in line with the level reached last year.
"To ensure reliable operation of the storage sites in the autumn-winter period of 2020/2021, the board instructed the relevant divisions and subsidiaries to create an operational gas reserve of at least 72.322 Bcm in Russia," Gazprom said.
It said that by the start of the 2019/2020 gas storage withdrawal season, the maximum daily withdrawal rate was 843.3 million cu, a record for the domestic gas industry.
"In the upcoming heating season, Gazprom plans to maintain this indicator at the achieved level," it said.
Gazprom said it also planned to store 1.09 Bcm of gas in Belarus and 0.09 Bcm in Armenia, essentially unchanged on the levels stored in 2019.
In its statement, Gazprom made no reference to plans for stockpiling gas in Europe.
Last September, CEO Alexei Miller said the company planned to have injected at least 11.4 Bcm into gas storage facilities within Europe by the end of 2019, which would be double the level of stocks it held at end-2018.
It has previously declared a stated aim of having access to capacity in Europe that corresponds to 5% of its European gas exports, which last year were some 200 Bcm.
Gazprom has been building its gas storage capacity in Europe in recent years, with sites across Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and Serbia.
Long-term aim
Late last week, Gazprom said it planned to boost its Russian gas storage capacity over the coming 10 years, with a target of having withdrawal capacity of more than 1 Bcm/d by 2030.
Since 2010, Gazprom has increased its Russian gas storage capacity by 36% and can now withdraw at 843 million cu m/d.
"By the 2030-2031 withdrawal season, it is planned to raise daily deliverability by approximately 200 million cu m," it said.
That would mean daily withdrawal capacity of as much as 1.04 Bcm/d.
It said it was to expand the Kaliningradskoye and Volgogradskoye storage facilities and will soon begin building the Shatrovskoye gas storage facility.
A new storage site is also in the design phase in the Republic of Tatarstan.
