Gazprom is right. On Thursday, Gas Infrastructure Europe, an industry association, announced that European gas inventories had dropped below the key 50% mark of total capacity, down to 49.33% as of Jan. 12. It's the earliest the half-empty mark has ever been reached, beating the previous record by seven days. Typically, Europe's gas inventories don't fall to half until about early-to-mid February. During some mild winters, the inventories don't sink below midpoint until early March.
The biggest ally of Europe in the gas crisis has so far been the weather. Only a month ago, many feared the 50% level would be breached on New Year's day. Unseasonal temperatures cut consumption and helped to avoid that scenario. The arrival of liquefied natural gas (LNG) cargos also alleviated the crunch. Some big energy consumers — like fertilizer companies, glass manufacturers and aluminum and zinc smelters — also shut down production.
Comment: One wonders just how low reserves would be if industry hadn't been shut down, and what the knock on effects of shutting them down will have on critical industries, trade and agriculture? It's not as though Europe has the luxury of losing that production and revenue.
Comment: Europe's puppet politicians might get lucky and this winter may continue to be relatively, unseasonably mild, however recent years have shown that severe frosts are still possible past April, so it's hardly a time to be celebrating. However it seems, whatever happens, it's not a high priority concern for Europe's establishment who are hellbent on attending to another agenda:
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