Uche Cecil Izuora
The European Union (EU) is monitoring global gas supply development as lower storage level poses major risks to countries within the bloc.
Despite lower storage levels compared to historical levels, the EU countries reconfirmed that EU gas supply remains stable.
The Commission said it will keep monitoring the situation very closely in cooperation with EU countries and stakeholders.
The European Union’s natural gas supply remains stable, according to the Gas Coordination Group, which advises the European Commission on coordinating security-of-supply measures in the event of an EU or regional emergency.
The Gas Coordination Group met again this week to take stock of the current gas market situation, the European Commission said on Friday.
“Despite lower storage levels compared to historical levels, the Commission and EU countries reconfirmed that EU gas supply remains stable,” the EC said.
“The Commission will keep monitoring the situation very closely in cooperation with EU countries and stakeholders.”
Europe’s gas supply has been under scrutiny since the end of the previous winter as Asian and European gas prices spiked in March following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
Even as crude oil cargoes have been pushing through the Strait with millions of barrels per day every day, LNG cargoes have struggled to transit the chokepoint as the gas is trickier to reload in ship-to-ship (STS) transfers as the oil exporters have been doing for months.
The choked LNG flows from the Middle East in the past six months have sent gas prices in Asia and Europe to the highest since the 2022-2023 energy crisis as buyers are competing for available supply that doesn’t need to move through the Strait of Hormuz.
As a result, European gas storage levels are at a historical low and well below last year’s and the five-year average of over 80 per cent full.
As of September 24, gas storage sites in the EU were only 70 per cent full, per data per by Gas Infrastructure Europe. Some major economies, including the biggest, Germany, have even lower-than-average gas stored so far this filling season. Germany’s vast storage, the world’s fourth-largest, is just about 57 per cent full, which has prompted concerns about supply security if the coming winter turns out much colder than previous winters.