Europe Fails to Meet Winter Gas Storage Targets, Reaching Only 70% Capacity

MOSCOW, October 1. /TASS/. Europe managed to inject only 70% of the gas volumes needed for the coming winter into its underground gas storage facilities by the end of the first month of autumn, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

Net gas injections - the difference between injection and withdrawal volumes - into underground storage facilities in EU countries have exceeded 47.5 bln cubic meters since the start of the summer season in April 2026. Thus, Europe has so far managed to inject only 70% of the volumes needed for the coming winter.

Under European Commission requirements, EU countries must ensure that their gas storage facilities are 90% full between October 1 and December 1 each year. A 10% flexibility margin is allowed in the event of difficult storage-filling conditions. Thus, net injections into European storage facilities must total at least 68 bln cubic meters by the start of the 2026-2027 autumn-winter season to meet the storage target.

Average gas injection rates into EU storage facilities in September remain the highest in the past four years amid warm weather. At the same time, gas prices at European hubs are at their highest since late 2022, indicating the European Union’s urgent efforts to fill its storage facilities for the winter even at very high prices. However, Europe has already missed the summer months that offered the most favorable conditions for injections.

As of September 29, European storage facilities were 71.54% full, 15.53 percentage points below the five-year average for that date, compared with 82.6% a year earlier. This is the lowest level for that date since records began in 2011. EU storage facilities hold around 78.3 bln cubic meters of gas, 12.7 bln cubic meters less than a year earlier and the lowest level since 2013. Gazprom has forecast that gas inventories in European storage facilities may not even reach 75% by the next heating season.

TASS reported earlier that Europe risks entering the heating season with record-low gas inventories. EU countries may have their storage facilities only 70-75% full by the traditional start of the autumn-winter season, which would be the lowest level ever recorded at the start of the heating season.