FACTBOX: European gas stocks and how long they may last

(Reuters) - A huge drop in Russian gas exports to Europe since January 2 has forced many countries to start draining reserves, which ranged from 69 to 81 percent full on January 5, according to data from gas storage operators.

But many countries can meet most of their normal winter for gas this month with gas in storage.

Some, like Germany cannot meet peak winter demand with storage alone, but many including Germany and France, get gas from other suppliers like Norway so would not need to cover all their gas needs with storage even if all flows from Russia stopped.

Following are details on the extent of gas storage capacity in several European countries.

The data comes from the International Energy Agency and Gas Storage Europe, an umbrella group of commercial gas storage operators.

Up to date stock level data is not available for all countries, because GSE groups smaller countries together and the latest levels can be seen here:

Where there are discrepancies between IEA and GSE data averages of the two have been used or ranges given.

Please note: Daily peak delivery capacity figures represent the maximum amount of gas that could be taken out of a country's storage facility when it is full.

As stock levels fall, the rate at which the remaining gas can be withdrawn falls because of lower pressure in the storage site.

As such, the figure given for the number of days that gas reserves can be drained at full flow is a minimum period. In

reality the stocks would last longer but the amount of fuel that could be extracted each day would also decrease.

AUSTRIA

Stock capacity *: 4,020 million cubic meters (mcm)

Capacity for Austrian use *: 2,120 mcm

Daily peak delivery capacity for Austria: 25 mcm

January 2006 consumption: 42 mcm/day