Underground gas storage (UGS) in Europe have fallen to around 70%, but the rate of production in December dropped sharply amid warm weather, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
The last gas production season from European underground gas storages ended on March 28, 2025, when 33.57% of reserves remained. Currently, European UGSs are 70.14% full (9.22 percentage points lower than the average for this date over the past 5 years), compared to 78.8% a year earlier. Since the start of the heating season on 13 October, EU countries have withdrawn approximately 18 billion cubic metres of gas from storage. Net withdrawals (the total rate of withdrawals exceeding the volume injected) exceed 14 billion cubic metres. In addition, total gas withdrawals from underground storage on the 62nd day after reaching maximum capacity were 19% lower than the average for that day in the previous 5 years.
The total volume of fuel in underground storage is currently only the ninth highest for a December on record – 77.5 billion cubic metres of gas.
According to the European Commission's requirements, EU countries must ensure that their storage facilities are 90% full of gas between 1 October and 1 December each year. In addition, a 10% flexibility is allowed in case of difficult filling conditions. However, net injections into European storage facilities by the start of the autumn-winter period amounted to only 54.7 billion cubic meters of the 61 billion cubic meters needed to meet the filling standard.
Earlier, „Gazprom“ predicted that the EU would face gas supply problems during sub-zero temperatures due to storage underfilling. In addition, „Gazprom“ CEO Alexei Miller said that long-term weather forecasts indicate the imminent onset of an unusually cold winter in Europe and Russia; such winters occur approximately once every 20 years.
The weather in Europe is expected to be quite warm this week. The share of wind power in EU electricity generation averages 20% in November and 18% in December. The average purchase price of gas in Europe in November this year was approximately 368 USD per 1000 cubic meters, compared to 331 USD in December.