MOSCOW, June 2. /TASS/. Gas injection into European underground gas storage facilities (UGS) fell by 13% year-on-year in May, while gas reserves in storage facilities stood at the lowest level for this period in the past five years at 40%, according to TASS calculations based on Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data.
Gas withdrawals from European storage facilities in May totaled 863 mln cubic meters, up 1.5% year-on-year. At the same time, injections into UGS facilities fell to a two-year low of 9.4 bln cubic meters.
At the end of May, Europe’s UGS facilities were 40.5% full, which is 14 percentage points below the average level for this date over the past five years, compared with 48.3% a year earlier. This is the lowest level for this date in the past five years. At the end of the month, EU storage facilities contained around 44.3 bln cubic meters of gas.
Earlier, Gazprom forecast that gas reserves in Europe’s UGS facilities may fail to even reach 70% by the next heating season.
Under European Commission requirements, EU countries must ensure that their gas storage facilities are 90% full between October 1 and December 1 each year. In addition, 10% flexibility is allowed in the event of difficult storage replenishment conditions. Thus, net injection into European storage facilities ahead of the 2026-2027 autumn-winter season must amount to at least 68 bln cubic meters to meet the filling target. A year earlier, Europe managed to reach only around 55 bln cubic meters.
