ByCharles Kennedy– Mar 20, 2025, 10:10 AM CDT
A group of EU member states, including the biggest economies Germany and France, are arguing that the bloc should allow more flexibility in its currently binding 90% full-storage target by November 1 each year, to avoid price spikes and market speculation.
Germany and France are pushing for a lower or at least a more flexible target, as part of ongoing EU talks on extending the storage filling goals through 2027, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg.
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In the wake of the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and the halt to Russian pipeline gas supply to most EU countries, the European Commission adopted a target for EU natural gas storage levels to be 90% full by November 1 of each year, ahead of the winter.
However, this rigid November 1 target has created problems for many market players. Policymakers in countries including Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands, are concerned that the current high forward gas prices for the summer months would make it unprofitable for gas companies and marketers to store gas.
During the ongoing talks, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Hungary are among the group of countries seeking 10 percentage points of flexibility in the target to have storage full at 90% by November 1, according to Bloomberg’s sources.
Poland, which holds the EU rotating presidency during the first half of the year, has reportedly offered additional flexibility—replace November 1 with a range, October 1 to December 1, by which the EU counties should have their gas storage sufficiently full.
“We support less rigid storage level requirements,” a spokesperson for the German government told Bloomberg on Thursday.
“More flexibility can ensure that the pressure to fill all gas storage facilities equally decreases and that market conditions normalize.”
With EU storage depleted at the fastest pace in seven years after a cold winter, the summer refill season presents several challenges in availability, prices, and the money that Europe will have to spend on additional LNG.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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