Gas reserves in underground storage facilities of three European countries dropped below 50% - GIE

Against the background of increased gas consumption in winter, in three European countries — France, the Netherlands and Croatia — the reserves of blue fuel in storage facilities fell below 50 percent.

This was announced by the Association of European Gas Infrastructure Operators (Gas Infrastructure Europe, GIE), publishing its own data on the total filling of local underground storage facilities (UGS).

From these data it follows that as of January 15, 2025, gas reserves in France dropped to a level of 49.24 percent, amounting to 6.4 billion cubic meters.

To date, the rate of fuel extraction from local UGS facilities has increased to the maximum since the beginning of the heating season. In the Netherlands, gas reserves decreased to 47.58 percent, and in Croatia — to 47.74 percent. These figures were the lowest among all EU countries (EU).

GIE analysts state that in the first half of January 2025, the rate of gas extraction in European UGS turned out to be 28 percent higher than the average for the previous five years.

Earlier, EADaily reported that in 2024 Gazprom increased pipeline gas exports to Europe by 13% and partially restored the sharp decline in 2022 due to sanctions and counter-sanctions.