Record Gas Surpluses and Storage in Winter Europe: Challenges and Predictions

Winter Europe will begin with a record amount of gas in underground storage. Surpluses from the previous season, as well as a reduction in consumption, helped to achieve this.

Currently, Europe’s underground gas storage is almost 99% full, which is a record. Moreover, the storages are being replenished despite the fact that the gas season has officially already started (it runs from October 1 to March 31). Some countries, such as Denmark, Bulgaria and Latvia, have started to empty their storages, but in general, the warm weather in Europe allows gas to be filled into storages.

Europe met the initial target of 90% gas storage filling two and a half months ahead of schedule, thanks to two factors – a high surplus from last winter (56%) and a 15-20% drop in gas demand. In addition, demand is not forecast to return to 2021/22 this winter. at the winter level of the year.

Similarly, Europe has significantly increased the capacity of LNG supplies – new terminals have been built in Finland, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and France.

The most gas is stored in Germany and Italy (25.8 and 19.8 billion cubic meters, respectively). Another three billion cubic meters of gas purchased by European gas operators are stored in the territory of Ukraine.

However, all this does not guarantee that there will be no problems with gas. There are many risks, from an unusually cold winter to large price increases and supply problems due to wars.

2023-11-02 22:01:00
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