In the first half of the year, the EU increased purchases of pipeline gas from Russia by 24%, reads the report of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF)

At the same time, total gas consumption in the region over the six months decreased by 4.1% in annual terms. The figure amounted to 164 billion cubic meters.

In June, energy demand in Spain fell by 20%, to 1.9 billion cubic meters, in Italy by 9.9%, to 3.4 billion cubic meters, in France by 5.3%, to 1.4 billion cubic meters.

Meanwhile, Germany last month increased gas consumption by 7.6%, to 3.7 billion cubic meters.

Currently, Europe's underground storage facilities are 81.02% full. This is 9.5 percentage points higher than the average for this date over the past five years.

www.anews.az