Europe's Gas Storage Reaches 47%, Injections Slow Amid Heatwave

MOSCOW, June 24. /TASS/. Gas reserves in Europe's underground gas storage (UGS) facilities have risen to 47%, but the pace of storage injections has slowed amid extreme heat, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE). Europe is currently experiencing extreme heat. During such summer periods, electricity demand for cooling systems and air conditioning rises sharply. Alongside nuclear, wind and solar power, natural gas is one of the main sources of electricity generation. Europe's UGS facilities are now 46.97% full (14.49 percentage points below the average level for this date over the past five years), compared with 56.2% a year earlier. They currently contain 51.4 bln cubic meters of gas. Total gas injections into European storage facilities since the beginning of June have amounted to 7.6 bln cubic meters (down 18% year-on-year). This figure is also 5% below the average storage refill pace for this date over the entire observation period. The current summer season will see higher fuel prices due to heightened competition with Asia for available volumes of liquefied natural gas as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. Gazprom has forecast that gas reserves in Europe's underground storage facilities may fail to reach even 70% by the next heating season. Under European Commission requirements, EU member states must ensure that their gas storage facilities are filled to 90% capacity between October 1 and December 1 each year. In addition, a 10% flexibility margin is permitted in the event of difficult storage-filling conditions. Thus, net gas injections into European storage facilities must amount to at least 68 bln cubic meters by the start of the 2026-2027 fall-winter season in order to meet the filling requirement. A year earlier, Europe managed to achieve a figure of only about 55 bln cubic meters.