EU not on track to fill gas storage 90% before winter
European Union countries are set to fall short of the bloc’s requirement to fill gas storage to 90% of capacity before next winter, because of the Iran war’s disruption to global fuel markets, the European energy regulators' agency ACER said on Thursday.
Countries should be able to reach a lower 80% filling level - a flexibility the EU rules allow in difficult market conditions, ACER said. But it added that hitting this level “will likely come at a premium cost” and be vulnerable to supply disruptions.
Filling storage to 90% would require the EU to increase its LNG imports by 13% compared with 2025, ACER said.
That will be difficult given tight global supplies. The Iran war has upended global gas markets by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz, which usually transits around 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas. Iranian attacks on Qatari gas infrastructure have caused damage Qatar says will take years to repair.
While most of the EU's gas imports come from outside the Middle East - from Norway and the U.S. - the disruption to global supplies has forced European buyers to compete with those in Asia for flexible LNG cargoes, and increased European gas prices by around 40%.
Europe's current reserves of stored gas are unusually low, after a cold winter. The current high prices are deterring companies from buying gas for storage.
EU gas storage is currently 31% full, the lowest level for this time of year since 2022, when Russia slashed gas supplies to Europe, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.
Gas from storage typically covers up to a third of EU gas demand in winter.
The European Commission has urged governments to start refilling gas storage as soon as possible, and said on Wednesday it will step in to coordinate countries' efforts to avoid them rushing to buy gas at the same time and causing new price spikes.
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