With winter approaching, Europe's natural gas stockpiles have fallen to a record low, raising alarms over gas supply and demand.
On the 3rd (local time), according to the non-profit organization Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), the storage level at gas storage facilities in the European Union (EU) stood at 65.6% that day, the lowest for the same period since related data began 15 years ago.
Given that about one-third of Europe's gas consumption relies on reserves in storage facilities, concerns over winter gas supply and demand are inevitably growing.
By country, concerns over supply and demand are mounting mainly in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Germany's gas storage industry projected that this year's gas reserves will fall short of the government's target of 70%. In the Netherlands as well, projections indicated that this year's stockpile will not reach the target of 80%.
Heribert Fieberg, chief executive officer (CEO) of MET Group, a European gas and power company, told the Financial Times (FT) that because the injection rate of gas storage facilities has limits, Europe has little time left to boost reserves before winter.
In response, the Dutch government decided to inject an additional 1 billion euros (about 1.6 trillion won) into Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN), a state-owned energy company, to increase gas reserves. It is unusual for the Dutch government to directly support gas stockpiling.
At a meeting to review gas storage conditions on the day, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, assessed the current situation as "unusual" but decided not to intervene in the market for now. The Commission explained that as the use of renewable energy has increased in recent years, Europe's gas demand has decreased by about 17%.