​Europe significantly reduced its natural gas consumption in October as households did not turn on their heating systems due to high temperatures, which is good news for the market ahead of winter, reports Bloomberg, citing Agerpres.

Governments in the region urged their consumers to reduce their gas consumption after a cut in supplies from Russia sparked fears of rationing as temperatures drop.

But a mild fall has helped keep the gases down, even as the power plants that generate the electricity continue to consume large amounts of fuel.

According to the data of the online platform EnergyScan, created by the French group Engie SA, the total demand for gas in Western Europe in October this year was 22% lower than in October last year.

This is despite the fact that the electricity production sector increased gas consumption by 14% year-on-year.

In addition to favorable weather conditions, demand for gas has also decreased due to a sharp rise in prices, so many small industrial users have scaled back their operations to survive.

Natural gas prices remain high, but have fallen sharply recently

“There are signs of a change in heating behavior,” says Julien Hoarau, director of analysis at EnergyScan.

This helped put “significant pressure on spot gas prices in Europe and strengthened the continent’s ability to balance the system in winter”, added Julien Hoarau.

Even if benchmark gas prices in Europe are more than three times their long-term average, they are still down more than 60% from their peak in August.

EnergyScan data also shows that gas demand from residential, commercial and small industrial customers fell 33% in October, while gas demand from large industrial customers fell 27%.

Bloomberg also noted on Oct. 25 that the combination of unusually warm weather and large reserves of liquefied natural gas means that gas storage facilities are nearly full before Europeans turn on their thermostats.