Against the background of a significant reduction in gas supplies by Russia, European countries are actively preparing for winter, filling gas storage facilities from available sources. Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) estimates that gas storage in Europe exceeded 80% at the end of August and currently stands at 86%.
Reuters writes about it.
The European Unionʼs dependence on Russian gas and the risk that Moscow could cut supplies have pushed the bloc to fill storage up to 80% by Oct. 1, when Europeʼs heating season begins. According to GIE, the association representing the interests of European gas infrastructure operators, European countries in general have already reached the target, but some countries have filled the storage a little more than half.
Germany, which has suffered the most from the reduction of gas flows from Russia and has the largest storages in the EU, has generally raised the bar to 95% fullness of gas storages by November.
This is how full the warehouses of European countries are as of September 8:
- In September, Russian “Gazprom” reported on the suspension of gas supplies through the “Nord Stream” pipeline, which is the main gas pipeline for supplies to the EU. Due to this, gas prices in the EU have increased significantly.
- Against this background, the European Union is developing a mechanism for limiting the price of Russian gas. So far, the European Commission is considering two options.