Gas withdrawal season at Europe’s storage facilities continuing as first quarter ends

According to Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE), gas reserves contained in Europe's underground gas storage facilities decreased to 34.3 billion cubic meters as of March 31, accounting for a third of the total storage facilities' volume and being 25.3 billion cubic meters lower than a year ago.

Thus, as much as 62.9 billion cubic meters of gas were already withdrawn from the facilities by the end of the first quarter of 2025. This figure is 25.2 billion cubic meters higher than the volume injected into the facilities in the previous summer, being the maximum excess ever observed.

This season's average daily gas withdrawal rate (390.3 million cubic meters as of March 31) became the second highest in the history of observation. It is second only to the figures observed in the 2017–2018 season, when an unusual cold snap had affected Europe. However, this time, European countries did not face any climate challenges.

It should be noted that the net gas withdrawal in March 2025 was 40.9 per cent higher than in March 2024.

By the end of this year's first quarter, Germany, the Netherlands and France used up more reserves than other European countries.

Said countries are among the top five with the largest gas storage capacities in Europe. By the start of the withdrawal season, the level of reserves in their UGS facilities had comfortably exceeded 90 per cent, while, as of March 31, it dropped to 28.7, 21.1 and 25 per cent in each of the abovementioned countries, respectively.

Taking into account the reduction in reliable gas supply sources available, it is going to be a challenging task this summer to fill European UGS facilities and get thoroughly prepared for the winter.

Gas reserves in Ukraine's UGS facilities reached an all-time low in the observation period.

As of March 31, gas inventories in said storages amounted to just 5.4 billion cubic meters (including cushion gas). In this withdrawal season, by the end of the first quarter of 2025, a total of 7.3 billion cubic meters of gas were withdrawn from Ukraine's UGS facilities, which exceeds the amount injected into the facilities in summer by one-third.

In Türkiye, gas consumption breaks new record highs.

According to the calculations based on relevant data of Türkiye's exchange company EPİAŞ, gas consumption in January-March exceeded 21 billion cubic meters, which is an all-time record of the first quarter of the year for Türkiye's gas market.