Europe's Gas Reserves Below 5-Year Average Despite Exceeding 45% Full

MOSCOW, June 17. /TASS/. Gas reserves in Europe's underground gas storage facilities (UGS) have exceeded 45%, although they remain at the lowest level for this date in five years, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

European storage facilities are currently 45.03% full, which is 14.3 percentage points below the average level for this date over the past five years, compared with 53.8% a year earlier. They now contain 49.2 bln cubic meters of gas.

Total gas injections into European storage facilities since the beginning of June have reached 5.3 bln cubic meters, down 16% year-on-year. This figure is also 4% below the average storage refill rate for this date over the entire period of observation. Gazprom previously noted that Europe continues to set anti-records in terms of gas storage replenishment.

Under European Commission requirements, EU member states must ensure that their gas storage facilities are filled to 90% between October 1 and December 1 each year. In addition, a 10% flexibility margin is permitted in the event of difficult storage-filling conditions. As a result, net injections into European storage facilities ahead of the 2026-2027 fall-winter season must amount to at least 68 bln cubic meters to meet the target level. Last year, Europe managed to achieve net injections of only about 55 bln cubic meters.

The current summer season will take place amid higher fuel prices due to intensified competition with Asia for available liquefied natural gas (LNG) volumes following the escalation of the Middle East conflict. Gazprom has forecast that gas inventories in Europe's underground storage facilities may fail to reach even 70% by the next heating season.

As previously reported by TASS, Europe completed its heating season in early April. The season became the second-longest on record since observations began in 2011, lasting 173 days. It was surpassed only by the 2020-2021 heating season, which lasted an unmatched 190 days. Net withdrawals during the most recent heating season exceeded 61 bln cubic meters, which was 6.5 bln cubic meters more than the volume injected during the previous summer.