January 24, 2025 [Oil Price]- The European Union is considering extending the binding natural gas storage targets for EU member states for at least another year after the current goals expire at the end of 2025, EU diplomats told Reuters on Thursday.

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. There are also intermediate targets for February 1, May 1, July 1, and September 1, 2025, as the EU looks to be prepared for the winter gas demand with nearly full storage sites.

Each EU member state must have their storage filled to at least 90% by November 1, to ensure security of supply through refilled storage facilities for winter 2025-2026.

The EU says that “each year since the introduction of the Regulation during the energy crisis, the EU has exceeded its gas storage filling target.”

Referring to reports about extending the EU gas storage target scheme after 2025, a European Commission spokesperson told Reuters, “We are looking into various options to ensure sufficient gas storage once the current regulation comes to an end.”

But the spokesperson declined to elaborate if extending the storage targets for another year would be the case.

Ahead of this winter, EU gas storage was around 95% by the deadline of 1 November. This amounts to about 100 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas in storage in the EU, representing around one-third of the EU’s annual gas consumption.

However, colder winter weather – unlike the previous two milder winters – and periods of low wind speeds in most of northwest Europe have been draining EU storage sites at their fastest pace in eight years.

As of January 21, EU storage sites were 58.5% full, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. In 2025, EU gas storage levels have been trending below last year’s levels and below the five-year average.

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