ALBAWABA - Europe is heading into the winter months with lowest gas reserves on hand since 2013, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned the shortage could extend pressure on the international market into 2027.
Europe’s gas reserves are at 75 percent capacity while the EU mandates a fixed 80 percent as a minimum target; making Europe’s current reserves at its lowest level in more than a decade, the IEA said.
Several factors contributed to the decline in reserves, mainly natural gas liquefaction facilities in the Gulf which have been targeted and damaged in the Iran war, not to mention the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz.
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Other factors include European nations holding off on filling their storage reservoirs at the end of the heating season in the spring, as buyers avoided buying stocks early in the war in the hope that energy prices would fall.
As the drop in price didn’t occur, energy buyers in Europe scrambled to restore their reservoirs late in August, September and October, but it was not enough to make up for the delay, the IEA said.
This led to the amount of gas going into reservoirs being four percent below the five-year average in Europe, making the continent even more vulnerable if the winter season comes colder than usual or if technical or supply problems arise in the gas network, said the IEA.
One notable case is Germany which assured citizens it would have enough gas for the winter despite missing storage targets; German gas storage facilities are 61 percent full on average, according to the German federal agency that oversees energy infrastructure and markets.
The 61 percent figure is below an EU legally mandated target for 70 percent by Nov. 1, the figure also lags behind the EU average of nearly 75 percent, according to the storage tracking platform AGSI.
Pshemaf Choiaqo is a digital marketer with a passion for media, style, and presentation.
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