Media: European gas storage levels rise above 30% as injection pace accelerates

Gas reserves in Europe’s underground storage facilities have surpassed 30% amid a gradual acceleration in injection rates, according to calculations by TASS based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

European storage sites are currently filled to 30.2%, holding around 33 billion cubic metres of gas. Net injections — the difference between gas injected and withdrawn — into EU storage since the start of the summer injection season in April have reached 2.3 billion cubic metres.

Under European Commission requirements, EU member states must ensure their storage facilities are 90% full between October 1 and December 1 each year. A 10% flexibility margin is allowed in case of difficult storage conditions. As a result, net injections into European storage ahead of the 2026–2027 winter season must amount to at least 68 billion cubic metres to meet the target. A year earlier, Europe managed to reach only around 55 billion cubic metres.

The current summer season is expected to see higher fuel prices due to intensified competition for available LNG volumes on the market with Asia, driven in part by the escalation of the Middle East conflict. Earlier, Gazprom projected that European gas storage levels may fail to even reach 70% ahead of the next heating season.

By Jeyhun Aghazada