Europe only just met its target for natural gas stocks, with some countries falling well short of their thresholds, and supply concerns continue.
The gas storage facilities in France, one of the largest energy consumers in Europe, were only 35.5 per cent full on 1 February, compared to a target of 41 per cent set by the European Commission. It has to be said: The European Union executive believes that countries that miss the targets by five percentage points or less will still meet the targets.
Overall, storage facilities in the EU were around 53% full at the beginning of this month - the lowest level for this time of year since 2022.
Penalties for missing targets?
Traders are watching inventories closely as they fear the market could tighten this summer as Europe needs more gas to replenish its depleted stockpiles. This makes replenishing stocks before next winter a major challenge, especially as summer gas contracts are trading at significantly higher prices compared to contracts for the following heating season.
The EU's underground storage caverns are designed to protect Europe from unexpected peaks in demand or supply disruptions during the coldest periods. While there has not yet been a case of a member state being penalised for missing targets, "a significant and sustained deviation" could lead to the European Commission taking action, according to Bloomberg.
France and the Netherlands appear to be stable
"The country's security of supply for this winter is in no way jeopardised," according to the press office of the French Ministry of Industry and Energy.
Some EU members calculate a separate target that takes into account certain exceptions - based on domestic gas consumption or exports to other countries - although not all countries publish these figures. For the Netherlands, for example, this threshold was 39 per cent on 1 February, compared to the European Commission's target of 47 per cent, according to the country's data. However, the Netherlands' storage facilities were actually only 37.1 per cent full.
The Austrian special case
Other countries with exceptions are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Slovakia - and Austria.
The target for Austria is 24.9 per cent full gas storage facilities, compared to 64 per cent published by the European Commission according to the Austrian Energy Market Regulatory Authority.
How is that possible? - Power2market is staying on top of it.
