The "Beast from the East" returns to Europe: the EU is leaning on storage facilities

Before the Catholic Christmas, the heating season for Europe was going well. Gas consumption was less than a year ago, which compensated for the low injection this year. However, the Arctic air, which is called the "Beast from the East," is returning to the region. In 2018, he brought abnormal frosts and forced the country The EU should empty the storages as much as possible.

According to GIE, on December 29, gas reserves in European storage facilities fell below 69 billion cubic meters. This is not a bad result, since this year only 90.3 billion cubic meters were accumulated in UGS (104 billion in 2024), and the weather made it possible to reduce consumption in November-December by almost 3 billion cubic meters compared to last year.

The end of December and the beginning of January, however, can spoil the whole picture. On Christmas, it got colder and gas extraction increased above 600 million cubic meters per day. And then meteorologists predict the return of the famous "Beast from the East", which has already frozen Europe in 2018.

"Over the next week, the weather will become bitterly cold, and in the new year the cold will intensify, and a mixture of snow and ice will appear, as "The Beast from the East will return,— writes London Business.

Meteorologists predict that in early January, a 713-mile-long snow bomb will hit the central part of the UK.

The German Meteorological Service, DWD and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in turn, expect constant snow storms in the UK and Europe from January 8.

Meanwhile, Severe Weather reports that part of Europe is already covered by Arctic air.

"The most severe cold will reach Poland, East Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and then expand south with a fast-moving polar front. The cold front will also expand across Central Europe to the west, reaching south-central France and Spain by Wednesday," experts expect.

According to them, the temperature may be 10 degrees Celsius below normal.

In this situation, gas supply in January is not under threat, but gas extraction from storage facilities may reach 1 billion cubic meters per day, which will drastically reduce reserves and, at least, make it more difficult to prepare for next winter. In 2018, the volume of gas in the UGS of the EU countries fell to a record 18 billion cubic meters, which forced European companies to almost double the injection.

So far, current gas supplies to Europe are high. LNG imports averaged 404 million cubic meters per day in December, while from Norway was supplied with almost the maximum 350 million cubic meters, but due to failures at two fields, exports were reduced to 305 million cubic meters today.

If the cold weather comes in Asia, then the countries The EU may be more difficult, as Asian consumers will start competing for LNG supplies, which they are currently reselling to Europe. And then prices can return to $ 400 per thousand cubic meters and above. So far, they have risen slightly due to disruptions in Norway to $ 345.