Europe begins July with slowest gas storage injections in one and a half months

MOSCOW, July 3. /TASS/. The pace of gas injections into underground gas storage (UGS) facilities fell on the first day of July to its lowest level since mid-May amid hot weather and a low share of wind power generation, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

At the same time, net gas injections (the difference between the volumes of gas injected and withdrawn) by EU countries into underground storage facilities on July 1 were the lowest for that date in the past six years.

This year's injection pace has been significantly affected by Europe's unsuccessful competition with Asia for available LNG volumes during the Middle East conflict, higher fuel prices, and extreme heat in June and July. During such summer periods, electricity demand for cooling systems and air conditioning rises sharply. Gas is one of the main sources of electricity generation alongside nuclear, wind, and solar power.

Europe's underground gas storage facilities are currently 49.22% full (14.91 percentage points below the five-year average for this date), compared with 59.2% a year earlier. They currently contain 53.8 bln cubic meters of gas, 11 bln cubic meters less than at the same time last year. Gazprom has projected that gas reserves in Europe's underground storage facilities may fail to reach even 70% by the start of the next heating season.

Under European Commission requirements, EU member states must ensure that their gas storage facilities are filled to 90% between October 1 and December 1 each year. A flexibility margin of 10% is permitted in the event of difficult storage-filling conditions. Accordingly, net gas injections into European storage facilities must total at least 68 bln cubic meters by the start of the 2026-2027 fall-winter season to meet the required storage target. A year earlier, Europe managed to achieve only about 55 bln cubic meters.