Gas injection into European storage facilities down 19% in June, stocks at five-year low

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Gas injection into European underground gas storage (UGS) facilities fell by 19% year-on-year in June amid hot weather and a drop in LNG imports, with storage levels rising to 49%, a five-year low, by the end of the month, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data.

Gas withdrawals from European UGS facilities in June totaled 727 mln cubic meters (down 14% year-on-year). At the same time, injections into underground gas storage facilities hit a two-year low of 10.1 bln cubic meters, which is also 6% below the average injection rate for the end of June recorded throughout the history of observations.

As of the end of June, European UGS facilities were 49.09% full (14.77 percentage points below the five-year average for this date), compared to 58.9% in the previous year. This represents the lowest level for this date in the last five years. By the end of the month, EU storage facilities held around 53.7 bln cubic meters of gas.

The European Commission requests EU members to make sure their UGS facilities are 90% full in the period from October 1 to December 1 of each year, with 10% flexibility allowed in the event of difficult UGS filling conditions. Thus, net injection into European storage facilities by the start of the 2026-2027 autumn-winter period must reach at least 68 bcm to meet the filling standard.

In June, Europe cut its imports of liquefied natural gas to a ten-month low amidst fierce competition with Asia for available market volumes due to the Middle East crisis.

In June, LNG flows from European terminals into the EU gas transmission system totaled around 10.1 bln cubic meters, 13% lower than in May, and 18% lower than in June 2025.

In January-June 2026, LNG inflows from terminals into Europe’s gas transmission system remained at a record level of roughly 72.7 bln cubic meters. However, the growth rate slowed significantly: the figure was only 1% higher than in the same period of 2025.