EU burns through gas storage at fastest rate since energy crisis

The EU is emptying its gas storage facilities at the fastest pace since the energy crisis three years ago as colder weather and a decline in seaborne imports raise demand, Report informs via the Financial Times.

The volume of gas in the bloc’s storage sites has dropped about 19 percent from the end of September, when the refilling season ends in gas markets, to mid-December, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe, an industry body.

The previous two years only saw single-digit drops over the same period, when higher than normal temperatures ensured that storage remained relatively full well into the winter heating season, and industries curbed demand due to higher prices.

“Europe has had to rely much more on its underground stores so far this winter than in the past two years to make up for lower liquefied natural gas imports and to meet stronger demand,” said Natasha Fielding, head of European gas pricing at Argus Media, a pricing agency.

Europe has also faced more competition for LNG imports from Asian buyers, who have been drawn by prices that are lower than in recent years. That has led to a slowdown in imports and the need to draw more on the stored reserves.

The last time the continent’s gas stores were emptied this fast by mid-December was in 2021 when Russia began cutting pipeline gas supplies ahead of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The EU’s storage levels are now at 75 percent, marginally above the average of the previous 10 years, before Western European governments began trying to lessen their dependence on Russian imports. Storage levels were close to 90 percent as of mid-December last year.