Europe is staring down its most precarious energy winter in over a decade. Equinor CEO Anders Opedal said Wednesday that the continent is unlikely to refill its natural gas storage facilities to even 80% before the heating season begins, according to Reuters.
European gas storage sites are currently about 54% full, the second-lowest level for this point in the year in 15 years and well below the five-year average, according to Equinor and Gas Infrastructure Europe data.
How Europe got here
Winter 2025-2026 was colder than average, which meant heavier-than-usual drawdowns from storage. By early April 2026, EU gas storage had cratered to roughly 29-31 billion cubic meters, or about 29-31% full.
Layer on the structural damage from 2022, when Russian pipeline flows to Europe dropped sharply, and you get a supply picture that hasn’t really healed. Europe replaced much of that Russian gas with liquefied natural gas shipments from the US, Qatar, and elsewhere. But LNG markets are tight globally, and Europe is now competing with Asia for every available cargo.
