Europe’s gas reserves now at 91% of capacity, exceeding targets

The occupancy rate of natural gas storages in Europe has exceeded 90%, according to information compiled from Gas Infrastucture Europe data on Thursday.

The EU exceeded its storage target 3 months ahead of schedule. Europe’s total natural gas storage capacity stands at around 113 billion cubic meters. The amount of gas currently in EU storage is 104.3 billion cubic meters.

EU countries, which consume about 400 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually, imported about 40% of their natural gas needs from Russia last year.

With the start of the war, the EU had prepared legal regulations that would oblige the underground natural gas storages in the member states to be filled until the winter months.

In this context, it was planned to reach 80% fullness in gas storages by November 1 this year and 90% in the following years. As of today, the total occupancy rate in Europe’s natural gas storages was recorded as 91.56%.

Eighteen of the 27 EU member states have natural gas storage facilities. Germany, Europe’s dominant economy, has the highest gas storage capacity. The total capacity of Germany’s natural gas storage is 25.1 billion cubic meters.

This country is followed by Italy with 20.2 billion cubic meters, the Netherlands with 14.7 billion cubic meters, France with 13.2 billion cubic meters, Austria with 9.8 billion cubic meters and Hungary with 6.9 billion cubic meters. There is also some natural gas storage capacity in Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Poland and Romania.

Currently, Belgium and Portugal have reached full storage capacity, while Denmark has reached 99%, France and Poland 98%.

• Natural Gas