On Thursday, news service Vedomosti reported that Europe’s emergency supplies of natural gas in its underground storage facilities are shrinking, as fuel consumption had skyrocketed due to the unusually cold weather recently.

In December, the EU has pumped four times as much fuel from its reserve supplies as it did on average in November, according to calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

So far in December, net withdrawal of gas from the EU’s underground storage facilities has averaged 563 million cubic meters per day. GIE data showed that in November that figure was just 157 million cubic meters per day.

So far EU gas inventories have fallen by 6.3% of capacity, leaving reserves at 93.3%. That, after it was reported the volume of natural gas in the reserves had reached an all-time high of nearly 98% for October.

Additionally, in December, the generation of renewable energy, such as wind turbine energy, fell, only covering roughly 15% of the energy needs of the bloc, according to the data.

Western and Central Europe continued to receive gas from Russian energy major Gazprom, through Ukraine, by the only remaining gas-pumping station, Sudzha. As of early December, roughly 42.4 million cubic meters per day had been supplied.

Although gas inventories currently have been deemed sufficient to last through the winter, analysts warn this could change as the winter progresses. Industry-watchers also note the EU market will he highly susceptible to the effects produced by the state of gas consumption in Asia, where it is expected that South Asia is shaping up to be the primary demand driver of the LNG market.