Gas reserves have already dipped below the 60% mark, a threshold typically not reached until late January
Russian energy major Gazprom has warned that the EU may face gas shortages as storage levels drop below 60%.
In a Telegram post on Tuesday, Gazprom stated that as of January 4, European underground gas storage facilities were at 59.9% capacity — a level last seen only at the end of January during the previous winter — citing calculations based on Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) data. The data also showed current reserves are about 13% below the five-year average for early January.
The steepest declines have been observed in key hubs like Germany and the Netherlands, the EU’s first and third-largest consumers by storage capacity. Dutch storage levels have fallen to 46.1%, while German facilities stand at just 54.1% full.
Gazprom noted that since the start of the heating season, 23.6 billion cubic meters of gas — nearly half the volume injected ahead of winter — has already been drawn from EU storage sites.
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Last week, the company warned that withdrawals this season are outpacing those of the prior heating period. Even amid the holiday slowdown, withdrawals on December 24 and 25 were the highest ever recorded for those dates.
“The rapid depletion of gas reserves in underground storage facilities leads to an early loss of operational efficiency and threatens the reliable supply of gas to consumers during cold weather,” Gazprom cautioned.
Colder-than-normal weather in late December has accelerated gas storage withdrawals, with Arctic air boosting heating demand across the continent and driving higher consumption. Forecasts indicate temperatures in the first half of January will drop to their lowest levels in 15 years.
After imposing sanctions on Moscow following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the EU has drastically cut Russian energy imports — which previously made up around 40% of its consumption. Under the bloc’s RePower plan, Brussels aims to fully eliminate Russian energy imports by 2027.
Moscow has criticized EU sanctions as “self-inflicted harm” and “economic suicide,” arguing Europe is sacrificing affordable energy for political reasons. Last month, the Kremlin warned that plans to phase out Russian gas by 2028 would further erode the bloc’s competitiveness and push up consumer prices.