During the first media interaction of the year on TVR Info, Eugenia Gusilov analyzed the recent decrease in gas prices and the outlook for 2023. Unusually mild winter temperatures have been the primary stabilizing factor, supported by robust gas reserves in underground storage facilities.

Measures implemented by states to protect consumers also played an important role, alongside the conservative and voluntary behavior of household consumers who delayed turning on their heating until mid-November. This postponed the start of the winter heating season by a month.

Europe and Romania entered the winter with nearly full storage facilities at 95 percent and 97 percent respectively. By January 2, 2023, storage levels stood at 83.5 percent in Europe and 79.7 percent in Romania, providing a comfortable safety margin.

The key challenge for 2023 will be replicating the success of 2022 in preparing for the following winter, an objective heavily dependent on the remaining gas volumes in storage at the end of March.