“Gas is being taken from the storage facilities, there are no people who want to buy it at current prices, so the companies use, whenever possible, the gas that was purchased from storage facilities at lower prices,” Mitrahovich said.
The problem, according to the expert, is that when a large amount of gas is taken from the storage facilities "by the end of the heating season, by the end of February, there will be very little of it."
In this case, there are risks of a shortage of gas and it will be necessary to significantly reduce its consumption, including by shutting down industrial enterprises, the analyst said.
“Of course, this contributes to the rise in prices.
And, by the way, the current prices that we see in Europe are high - one of the reasons for this rise in prices is that there is a rapid selection of gas from storage facilities, ”added the interlocutor of RT.
Earlier, Gazprom's press service announced that a third of the volume of gas injected in the summer had been taken from underground gas storage facilities in Europe.
According to Gas Infrastructure Europe, as of December 13, the volume of active gas in European underground storage facilities is 24.5% (19.9 billion cubic meters) less than last year's level.