Europe injects over 16 bcm of gas into storage for next winter

MOSCOW, June 10. /TASS/. Net gas injection (the net difference between injection and withdrawal volumes) by EU countries into underground storage facilities (UGS) since the start of the summer season in April 2026 has already exceeded 16 billion cubic meters, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

European UGS facilities are currently 42.8% full (14.31 percentage points lower than the average for this date over the past five years), compared to 51.4% a year earlier, holding 46.8 billion cubic meters of gas.

Since the beginning of June, total gas injection into European storage facilities amounts to 2.7 billion cubic meters (down 21% compared to the previous year). This figure is also 7% lower than the average filling rate of underground gas storage facilities for this date on record. Gazprom previously noted continued record low filling rates in European underground gas storage.

According to European Commission requirements, EU countries must ensure that their storage facilities are 90% full with gas between October 1 and December 1 of each year. Additionally, a 10% flexibility is allowed in the event of challenging filling conditions. Therefore, net injection into European storage facilities by the start of the 2026-2027 autumn-winter period must reach at least 68 billion cubic meters to meet the filling standard. A year earlier, Europe only managed to achieve a figure of approximately 55 billion cubic meters.

The current summer season will be marked by higher fuel prices due to the intensified competition for available liquefied natural gas on the Asian market as a result of the Middle East conflict. Gazprom predicted that gas reserves in European underground gas storage facilities may not even reach 70% by the next heating season.

As previously reported by TASS, Europe concluded its heating season in early April, which was the second-longest since 2011, lasting 173 days. In this indicator, it was second only to the 2020-2021 heating season, which lasted an unattainable 190 days. Net withdrawals in the past heating season exceeded 61 billion cubic meters, 6.5 billion cubic meters more than the volumes injected last summer.