Europe experienced record gas withdrawals from underground storage…
Europe experienced record gas withdrawals from underground storage facilities in July due to extreme heat and drought, leading to significantly lower-than-usual gas injections and reduced storage levels across several countries, including Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
Consensus
- Gas withdrawals from European underground storage facilities in July reached 964 million cubic meters.
- This level of gas withdrawal is the highest for July since 2022.
- The volume of gas injected into storage facilities in July was 8.8 billion cubic meters, 16% lower than in the same month of 2025.
- Net gas injection (net injection) in July was 7.8 billion cubic meters, the lowest since 2020.
- Gas storage levels across Europe declined to around 58% by early August, down from 68.5% in the same period of the previous year.
- Germany's gas storage facilities were less than 50% full.
- The Netherlands' gas storage facilities were less than 40% full.
- France's gas storage level on 27 July was 54.7%, the lowest since 2017.
- Extreme heat and drought were cited as key factors driving increased gas demand and reduced power generation capacity.
Points of divergence
- The maximum for July since 2022 was 1.4 billion cubic meters in 2022. — kommersant
- The maximum for July since 2022 occurred in 2022 with 1.4 billion cubic meters. — vedomosti
- The daily gas injection rate on 4 August reached a record low for that day since 2012. — vedomosti
- The reduction in power generation capacity is due to reduced water availability for cooling at nuclear and hydroelectric plants in France and Germany. — kommersant
- Hungarian authorities are discussing energy consumption restrictions for large companies to reduce load by 500 MW per day. — vedomosti
Coverage (2 sources)
- GIE: Unusual heat forced EU countries to spend record amounts on gas reserves — Коммерсантъ
- Due to heat, Europe pumped record gas volume from storage — Ведомости