Europe enters heating season with lowest gas reserves in 13 years

According to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), European underground gas storage (UGS) facilities as of October 28 are filled to 74.89% — 14.79 percentage points below the five-year average for this date. A year ago, the comparable figure was 82.8%.

The absolute volume of reserves in European UGS facilities stands at approximately 82 billion cubic meters of gas. This is 9.4 billion cubic meters less than a year earlier and the lowest volume since 2013. The recorded fill level represents the minimum for this date across the entire observation period, which began in 2011.

Since the start of the summer injection season in April 2025, Europe has managed to inject only 75.5% of the volume needed to achieve winter targets into UGS facilities — that is, 51 billion cubic meters. Several countries have recorded net gas withdrawal from storage for the second consecutive week, signaling the gradual start of the heating season.

Under European Commission requirements, EU member states are obligated to fill UGS facilities to 90% level between October 1 and December 1 annually. An acceptable deviation of 10 percentage points is permitted under difficult injection conditions. To achieve the target level for the upcoming 2025–2026 season, a total injection of at least 68 billion cubic meters will be required. However, the European Commission, banking on an unusually mild winter, is prepared to lower the target level to 80%.

Gazprom previously forecast that European UGS facilities might not reach even 75%, warning of a difficult autumn-winter season. According to TASS, if the heating period begins at a 70–75% level, this would be the lowest season-start reading in the entire observation history. Record liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports in late October failed to push past this threshold.