European countries in mid-January 2026 set a record for daily imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG), against the background of (large) cooling. This is according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), writes TACC.
On January 14, LNG flows from European terminals into the EC gas transmission system reached 486 million cubic meters, which is the highest level of demand in the entire history of observation. ΠThe previous record for the largest daily LNG import was set in June 2025.
As a whole, Europe continues to actively pump gas from its underground gas storage facilities through the Alps, due to the significant drop in temperatures in the region.
By the end of the previous heating season (ending on March 28, 2025) - When gas is being actively pumped from the gas storage facilities, there are remaining reserves, equal to 33.57% of the gas storage capacity.
At the moment, European gas storage facilities as a whole are 51.87% full, which is 15.34 percentage points less than the average level of capacity for this date over the last five years. And in mid-January 2025, the occupancy rate of European gas storage facilities was also considerably higher than today - 64.2%.
Since the start of the current heating season for Europe, which began on October 13, 2025, the EC countries have so far withdrawn about 39 billion cubic meters of gas from gas storage facilities. Net production (total withdrawals exceeding injections) reached 34 billion cubic meters of gas.
Πp However, total gas withdrawals from underground gas storage facilities on the 94th day since their maximum filling last year were 7% lower than the average for that day over the previous five years. years.
So, the total volume of blue fuel in Europe's underground gas storage facilities is (only) 57.3 billion cubic meters of gas.