European natural gas inventories are falling below 50% of storage availability. This is a rather low figure for various reasons and which could have effects both on the price of the raw material in the coming months and on heating bills in the future.
Since Europe severed its relations with Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine by the army of Fly, Gas supplies have been key to managing the European energy market. If they don’t fill up by winter, the problems could be different.
Gas stock levels in Italy and Europe
The Ansa news agency reports data on the gas storage situation in Europe updated by the Gie platform, which brings together over 70 companies in the sector across the continent. The average within theEuropean Union is about 59%, with Italy remaining slightly below. This is just under 17% of the total annual requirement, but depending on the individual countries the situation changes radically.
The fullest tanks in relation to annual consumption are the Austrian ones. Vienna still has 74% of its full storage, equal to almost 80% of the gas it consumes in a year. THE Netherlands on the other hand, they are the country that has the best storage situation by far, with tanks over 76% full, which however only represent just over half of the Dutch annual requirement.
The highest stocks in terms of cubic meters of gas are held there Germany, with 166 TWh of methane potentially still usable, 65% of its storage. Italy in this ranking it is second, with still 114 TWh, which however are only 58% of our country’s possibilities. However, both of these figures, if contextualized with the annual consumption of the two countries, stop at 18.7% and 15.19%.
The risk of empty warehouses and the shadow of Russia
Even if the numbers appear comforting, the fact that European gas reserves are actually half empty is significant risk factor for the energy market of the entire continent. The problem also has to do with the way storage works. In fact, these systems are more efficient the fuller they are.
As the reservoir, which is often underground, is emptied, the extraction of natural gas from it becomes increasingly complex and requires greater use of energy. In fact, therefore, the last cubic meters of gas contained in a storage are less “dense” in energy than the first.
Keeping these reserves above a certain threshold at the start of winter is crucial Europe also to keep the markets calm. This has been demonstrated by the trend in gas prices in recent months. With a warm winter and corporate energy consumption still below pre-pandemic levels, reserves remained full until midwinter and the price of methane reached levels before the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia which led to the energy crisis.
The objective of European countries now is therefore to stock up on new ones in time gas supplies during the summer, also taking advantage of the new channels opened with the USA and Middle Eastern countries for supplies of liquefied gas by sea.
