BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 21. EU storage injections during summer 2022 are expected to increase compared to last year to reach the European Commission’s fill target of 80 percent by 1 November 2022, Trend reports with reference to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
IEA says in its gas market report that natural gas storage played a crucial role in meeting seasonal swings in gas demand across all key gas regions during the 2021/22 heating season.
Gas storage levels both in Europe and the United States stood well below their five-year average levels at the end of the heating season, indicating strong restocking needs in the forthcoming gas summer (Q2-3 2022).
In the European Union, gas storage sites stood 17 percent (or 15 bcm) below their five-year average levels on 1 October, the start of the European heating season. Storage sites partly owned or controlled by Gazprom (accounting for 10 percent of total EU storage capacity) were filled to just 25 percent of their working storage capacity, contributing to approximately half of the European Union’s storage deficit.
Storage withdrawals met approximately 20 percent of EU gas demand during the heating season. Milder winter temperatures reduced gas demand for space heating, which together with the strong LNG inflow (up 60 percent y-o-y) lessened storage withdrawals, which fell by 13 percent below their five-year average. This in turn moderated the EU storage deficit to 8 bcm below its five-year average by the end of the heating season. Inventory levels stood at 26 percent of their working storage capacity by the end of March 2022. Without the strong increase in LNG inflow, EU storage levels would have stood below 10 percent of their working storage capacity, leaving the bloc in a much more vulnerable situation vis-à-vis late cold spells and/or supply disruptions.
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