Europe consumes gas at a record pace amid a cold snap

The cold snap in Europe has led to a sharp increase in gas consumption from underground storage facilities. Since the beginning of the heating season, fuel selection has been 2.2 times higher than the average for the previous five years. At the same time, gas reserves remain record low. This data is based on the statistics of European gas infrastructure operators (GIE).

The heating season began on October 28. In the first 10 days, European countries extracted almost 3 billion cubic meters of gas from storage facilities. Net selection, taking into account the ongoing injection, exceeded 2 billion cubic meters, which is more than three times the average five-year level.

Record daily selection volumes were recorded in seven out of 10 days. In this short period, Europe has already consumed 5% of the 51.2 billion cubic meters of gas accumulated over the summer.

As of November 6, vault occupancy has decreased to 72.98%. A year ago, the figure was 82.8%, and the average level over the past five years was higher than the current level by 16.63 percentage points.

The current figure was the lowest for November 6 in the history of observations since 2011. Less than 80 billion cubic meters of gas remained in European storage facilities, which is 11.6 billion less than last year’s volume. In absolute terms, stocks have fallen to a minimum since 2013.

According to EU rules, storage facilities must be filled by 90% between October 1 and December 1, but in difficult conditions, deviations from the established level are allowed. In 2026, the European Commission proposed reducing the target by 10 percentage points.

Despite the relaxation of requirements, the average occupancy of European storage facilities by the beginning of November did not reach even 80%.

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