Commission report underlines positive impact of the gas storage regulation

EU countries made ‘substantial and unprecedented efforts’ to refill their gas storage facilities in 2022, surpassing the legislative 80% EU-wide storage level target and reaching 94.9% by 1 November 2022. This is one of the findings of the report (COM/2023/182) and Staff Working Document (SWD/2023/73) published by the Commission today, looking at how the Regulation (EU) 2017/1938, amended in 2022 to introduce gas storage filling targets, helped tackle the energy crisis spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The high level of storage filling greatly helped ensure the security of supply during the 2022/2023 winter, which in turn reduced the risk premium in the gas market at the end of the year.

For the first time ever, in 2022 EU countries have developed specific arrangements to share storage resources and related costs across borders. The Commission will collect their feedback on these arrangements.

While there is no immediate correlation between the filling targets and gas prices, the report finds that the price spikes for gas cannot be attributed to the targets set by the regulation. Moreover, appropriate measures have been taken to remove the potentially negative influence of non-EU countries on the storage sites’ filling levels. Storage facilities formerly owned and operated by Gazprom were filled to 94% by November 2022, compared to just 26% in November 2021.

Documents

• Report on the implementation of the EU Gas Storage Regulation (COM/2023/182)
• Staff Working Document (SWD/2023/73)

Related links

• Gas storage