Interfax reported that Russian gas consumption has hit a new all time high with the onset of the first severe cold weather of the winter.

The Central Dispatching Department of the Fuel and Energy Complex said consumption on Monday rose above the 1.9 billion cubic meters threshold and totalled 1.934 billion cubic meters that day and 1.941 billion cubic meters on January 24.

The previous highs had been 1.829 billion cubic meters in February last year which prompted Gazprom to introduce its so-called Schedule No.1 for gas supplies calling for major industrial users like factories and power plants to switch to standby fuel.

CDU TEK said 541.5 mcm of gas was taken out of storage on January 24 more than the planned daily maximum of 522.1 mcm for the period, but still not as much as the all-time high of 533.9 mcm that was taken out on January 20, 2011.

The Russian gas supply system was able to economize heavily on gas during a mild December and just 19.3 billion cubic meters of the winter reserve of 62.2 billion cubic meters has so far been taken out of storage.

The Unified Energy System Operator said the average temperature had fallen below last year's low on Wednesday but continued to fall, unlike a year ago, when the cold started to ease.

The situation with resources is complicated by the fact that Uzbekistan is only supplying a token 5 mcm per day to Russia five times less than contract volumes.

(Sourced from Interfax)