European Gas Storages are more than 80% Full, Bulgaria is with the Fewest Reserves

Bulgaria is among the five European countries with the lowest filling levels of the underground gas storage facilities (UGS) - with a filling level of 61.74%, together with Latvia (49.7%), Hungary (62.52%), Austria (66 .86%) and Romania (73.5%). This is according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).

Gas stocks in European underground gas storages (UGS) in August exceeded the target level of 80% for the upcoming heating season. At the same time, imports of liquefied natural gas into Europe fell by 14% last month compared to July but still reached record highs in August.

According to GIE data, European gas storages increased their volume by 13 billion cubic meters in August, which is the third largest volume for this month since 2011. The withdrawal of gas from the storages is the lowest since 2017 - only 0.85 billion cubic meters.

As of August 31, gas storage reserves in Europe had risen to 80.35%, which was 0.3 percentage points above the five-year average as of that date. At the moment, they store about 86.5 billion cubic meters of gas. EU member states previously committed to filling their storage facilities to at least 80 percent by the winter of 2022-2023 and to 90 percent for all subsequent winters. In 2021, the maximum storage fill level was observed on October 21 at just over 83 billion cubic meters (77.28%).

The highest levels of storage capacity are observed in Portugal and Poland (stock levels of 100% and 99.3% respectively). France (91.89%), Sweden (90.8%) and Denmark (94.62%) are also among the leaders in terms of reserve levels. Germany has 84.26%, Italy - 82.56%, Spain - 84.71%, Netherlands - 77.78%, Czech Republic - 82.12%, Belgium - 89.12% and Slovakia - 75.01%. The five European countries with the lowest...