London, 2 August (Argus) — European gas storage injections ticked slightly lower in the week to 30 July, but remained on course to fill reserves around the start of the heating season.

Member companies added 1.67bn m³ to inventories, down from 1.69bn m³ the previous week, which had been Europe's quickest stockbuild since early June, according to data from industry body GSE.

German injections slowed most, falling to 423mn m³ from 501mn m³, while the UK's stockbuild decreased to 123mn m³ from 189mn m³.

France added 424mn m³ to inventories, up from 344mn m³, and Italian injections rose to 312mn m³ from 248mn m³. The stockbuild at eastern European sites around Austria's Baumgarten hub was marginally slower on the week.

Most countries remained on pace to fill facilities before the start of the heating season in November. At last week's rate, Germany would reach full capacity by 14 October and the UK would fill inventories by 1 September. France's quicker injection rate would fill subscribed capacity by 16 October, despite stocks being 1.92bn m³ lower than a year earlier. And Italy was on course to reach capacity by 4 October.

But sites around Baumgarten will not fill until 22 November and Dutch storage will not reach capacity until 14 November at the past week's rate.

Overall, European inventories rose to 55.1bn m³, or 3.9bn m³ lower on the year on 30 July. France accounted for almost half of the shortfall, while sites around Baumgarten were 1.05bn m³ lower. German stocks were also down by 809mn m³.

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