Bulgaria filled its "Chiren" Gas Storage Facility up to 80%
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Loading... - Freja Jensen
- 14 Oct 2022
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The Bulgarian “Chiren” gas field is 80.27% full - the mandatory minimum required by the EU for stocking up for the winter.
This is according to the data published on Wednesday by the organization "Gas Infrastructure Europe", which monitors the level of reservoirs in Europe.
Bulgaria managed to meet the European requirement almost three weeks before the deadline for doing so, but 42 days after the EU met its target on 31 August.
Currently, European gas storages are full on average at 91.35%, with only Hungary and Latvia not yet reaching the minimum levels and having 76.77% and 54.01% respectively.
Almost all other European countries already maintain a reserve of over 90%, and Portugal, Belgium, Denmark, France have completely filled their gas storages.
The owner of the Bulgartransgaz storage facility has not yet commented on whether it will continue to fill Chiren even after the European requirement has been met, but on Monday EWRC Chairman Ivan Ivanov commented that this would be an expected action.
The European Commission adopted a regulation in the summer that obliges European countries to maintain reserves in their underground gas storages of at least 80% as of November 1, and at least 90% from next fall, in order to guarantee their energy needs during the winter season in the event of a total shutdown of supplies from Russia, which until recently was the main importer of natural gas in Europe.
After the start of the war in Ukraine, European countries managed to reduce their gas consumption by 10% and use Russian gas from 40% of their needs last year to 7.5% this fall, according to data from the European Commission. On Tuesday, the Commission announced that Norway had replaced Russia as Europe's main supplier of natural gas. Read More...
