EU sets intermediary gas storage fill targets for 2025

Market: Natural gas
29/11/24

The European Commission today fixed intermediary gas fill level targets for February, May, July and September next year.

The commission released the information two weeks after the deadline set in the EU's storage regulation.

EU underground storage sites must be at least 50pc full in aggregate by 1 February and 30pc full by 1 May.

The intermediary targets for February and May are particularly important in view of the end of gas Russian transit agreement through Ukraine by 1 January 2025, the commission said. But the countries directly affected by the end of the agreement — Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — all have derogations to these obligations, meaning their 90pc filling target is reduced to 35pc of annual national consumption in the previous five years. The Netherlands, Latvia and Hungary also qualify for derogations.

All non-exempt member states must reach a 90pc fill level by 1 November, but intermediary targets vary depending on country-specific characteristics such as demand patterns, storage capacity and filling rates in previous years (see intermediate targets 2025 table). The commission will consider states that miss targets by five percentage points or less to be in compliance.

Intermediate objectives have risen notably in Italy and Austria, two countries that may stop receiving Russian pipeline gas after the end of the transit agreement (see stockbuild target 2025 table).

Even so, stocks in all EU countries on 1 February and 1 May this year comfortably surpassed the targets set for those dates in 2025 (see targets 2025 vs levels 2024 table).

Filling objectives remain the same in Germany and France — the two European countries with the largest storage capacities — but have been revised up for the Netherlands.

The EU's storage regulation contains little detail on how the targets might be enforced. Denmark is an example of a member state that missed its start-of-November target this year — and its stocks were down further to 68pc as of the morning of 28 November, from 75pc on 1 November.

In any case, the tougher start-of-February target could encourage storage users to leave more of their stored gas untouched than previously expected, in turn reducing potential summer injection demand. Expectations of a heavier stockdraw than in recent winters have helped push the front-summer contract to a premium to the front-winter market in recent weeks.

Austria's derogated target much lower

Austria needs to reach a fill level of only about 21pc by 1 February thanks to its derogation, as opposed to the 64pc laid out in the commission's annex.

Assuming annual consumption this year of the same level in 2023, Austrian consumption would average 87.3 TWh/yr in 2020-24, the Austrian energy ministry told Argus. After multiplying the values listed in the annex by the limit of 35pc of annual consumption and then dividing the result by 90pc, this would result in a required filling level on 1 February of just 21.6TWh, or 21pc of Austria's 101.6TWh working gas capacity, the ministry calculated. Austria would need to ensure 17pc of its storage was full by 1 May, 22pc by 1 July, 26pc by 1 September and 30pc by 1 November.

By Isabel Valverde and Brendan A'Hearn

Intermediate storage targets, 2025				pc full
Member state	1-Feb	1-May	1-Jul	1-Sep

AT	64	52	66	77
BE	30	5	40	78
BG	55	36	57	77
CZ	40	25	30	60
DE	45	10	30	65
DK	45	40	60	75
ES	58	53	64	80
FR	41	11	39	81
HR	46	29	51	83
HU	59	38	61	84
IT	55	45	54	72
LV	45	41	63	90
NL	47	39	57	72
PL	50	35	60	80
PT	70	70	80	80
RO	41	42	63	84
SE	53	5	5	5
SK	45	20	29	74
— European Commission

Stocks targets change 2025 vs 2024				± percentage points
Member state	1-Feb	1-May	1-Jul	1-Sep

AT	14	12	8	5
BE	0	0	0	0
BG	3	3	2	0
CZ	0	0	0	0
DE	0	0	0	0
DK	0	0	0	-5
ES	-1	-7	-2	0
FR	0	0	0	0
HR	0	0	0	0
HU	8	1	-4	-2
IT	10	9	0	0
LV	0	0	0	0
NL	4	9	7	4
PL	0	0	0	0
PT	0	0	0	0
RO	1	1	-2	-1
SE	-6	-25	-56	-74
SK	0	0	2	7

Stocks targets for 2025 vs stocks in 2024				percentage points
Member state	1 Feb 2025 target	1 Feb 2024 fill level	1 May 2025 target	1 May 2024 fill level

AT	64	81	52	75
CZ	40	75	25	62
DE	45	75	10	68
DK	45	75	40	55
FR	41	59	11	50
HU	59	76	38	71
IT	55	64	45	65
NL	47	65	39	55
PL	50	75	35	43
SK	45	74	20	73

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