A winter without gas: Europe begins the season with record-low reserves

Net gas withdrawals from underground storage facilities in Europe have turned positive for the first time this autumn, marking the official start of the heating season in the region, according to TASS calculations based on data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

 Europe has managed to inject only 75% of the volume required for the winter into its underground storage facilities. As of October 20, these facilities were 74.58% full, the lowest level for this date since records began in 2011.

According to GIE data, gas withdrawals from EU storage facilities exceeded injections for the gas day of October 20. Storage facilities currently hold approximately 81.7 billion cubic meters of gas—9.7 billion less than the levels seen in 2025 and the lowest volume since 2013. The current level is 14.58 percentage points below the five-year average.

Several countries in Central and Eastern Europe, including Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, began consistent withdrawals even earlier. Given that Europe typically transitions from net injection to net withdrawal around October 28, this year’s start has occurred earlier than usual.

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