Gazprom PJSC’s daily natural-gas exports to key foreign markets fell in October as flows to Europe remain capped. 

Concerns over the Russian fuel deliveries, which historically accounted for about a third Europe’s gas consumption, have eased in recent weeks. Unusually mild weather has delayed the demand for heating, allowing European nations to continue stockpiling gas. EU gas storage sites were more than 94% full as of the end of last week, compared with five-year seasonal average of 89%. 

Still, Russia has been cutting deliveries to Europe for months, and full gas facilities won’t be enough to keep households from freezing this winter during days of peak demand if the weather is abnormally cold, Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller said last month. Europe could lack some 800 million cubic meters of gas a day without Russian supplies during high demand, he said. 

Russia’s gas giant exported 139 million cubic meters a day to countries outside the former Soviet Union last month, down 11.5% from September, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data published Tuesday. Since the start of the year, Gazprom’s deliveries to its main foreign clients have fallen 42.6% from a year ago to 91.2 billion cubic meters.

Gazprom doesn’t provide a detailed breakdown of its exports to European markets, including Turkey. With major routes for Russian pipeline gas to Europe compromised, flows continue via Ukraine at capped levels and those to Hungary and Serbia are going through one leg of the TurkStream pipeline that runs from Russia to Turkey. 

Daily flows via Ukraine have averaged more than 42 million cubic meters in October, while shipments via TurkStream to Europe have averaged some 29 million cubic meters a day. Russia’s total exports to Europe amount to just over a fifth of what they were before the invasion of Ukraine in February.

Flows to China via the Power of Siberia link continue to increase with deliveries “regularly” exceeding daily contractual volumes, Gazprom said.

Gazprom’s daily gas production averaged 990 million cubic meters in October, up almost 18% from a month earlier, according to Bloomberg calculations. Its production this year has fallen 19% from a year earlier to 344 billion cubic meters.

Last month, Russia’s underground inventories reached a record 72.66 billion cubic meters, with a maximum daily withdrawal capacity of as much as 852.4 million cubic meters, in line with Gazprom’s plans. That ensures the company’s ability to lift necessary volumes if demand jumps sharply in colder winter weather, the producer said last week.