Gas storage rules: EU Council agrees its negotiating mandate

Brussels, 11 April 2025

Today, member states’ representatives (Coreper) approved the Council’s position on amending the gas storage regulation. The Council agreed to extend gas storage rules by two years while providing additional flexibilities for member states to adapt to constantly evolving market conditions and to address possible market manipulations.

This text will serve as the negotiating mandate for the presidency to start talks with the European Parliament on the final shape of the law.

Two-year extension of gas storage rules

The Commission proposed to extend by two years member states’ existing obligations to have their gas storage facilities 90% full before the winter season, in order to provide predictability and transparency. This extension, also kept in the Council’s position, would reduce the EU’s exposure to volatile prices, including due to the current geopolitical instability.

It would also help to improve energy security and gas market stability until a potential EU-wide framework on energy security is established in the upcoming years.

More flexibility for member states

The Council mandate introduces a series of changes to provide additional flexibilities for member states. This would help them react swiftly to constantly changing conditions and to take advantage of the best purchasing conditions, while ensuring security of gas supply and the correct functioning of the internal market. In particular:

the already existing binding 90% filling targets should be reached anytime between 1 October and 1 December instead of the current 1 November deadline
the Council mandate clarifies that intermediary storage targets for each member state in February, May, July and September are indicative, in order to achieve storage filling and predictability while leaving sufficient flexibility for market participants throughout the year
in case of unfavourable market conditions (such as possible market manipulations), member states may deviate by up to 10% from the filling target
the Commission may further increase this deviation (with a delegated act), in case of persistent unfavourable market conditions
if the national gas production of member states exceeds the average annual consumption over the preceding two years or in the event of slow injection rates of storage facilities with a capacity of over 40 TWh, member states may deviate by up to 5% from the filling target
the latter flexibility can be used as long as it does not impact negatively the functioning of the internal gas market or the ability of directly connected member states to supply gas to their protected customers

Next steps

Negotiations on the new regulation are expected to start in May, once the Parliament has voted on its mandate. Once a provisional agreement is reached between the two co-legislators, it will be formally endorsed by both institutions before being published and entering into force.

Background information

Thanks to the gas storage targets established in 2022, Europe’s energy security situation has improved since the energy crisis provoked by Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. These gas storage obligations are set to expire at the end of 2025. However, the continuing tight situation in the global gas market calls for an extension of these provisions beyond 2025.

Gas storage facilities provide for 30% of the Union’s gas consumption during the winter months. Moreover, well-filled underground gas storage facilities can help provide additional gas in the event of high demand or supply disruptions.

Source – EU Council

EU Commission welcomes new ENTSOG report confirming the importance of storage last winter and need to start refilling as soon as possible

In its 2025 Summer Supply Outlook report, published today, the European Network for Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) confirmed that gas storage was particularly important last winter, covering more than 30% of the EU’s gas consumption. Storages also helped to contain price volatility, as stored gas was cheaper than LNG imports during winter months. Once again, the gas storages significantly contributed to the EU’s overall energy security.

The new report states that the storage levels were at 34% on 1 April 2025, the end of the winter season and gas year. This is lower than in the 2 previous years with warm winters, but in line with average pre-crisis levels.

The Summer Supply Outlook report recalls that it is essential to start refilling storage as early as possible. Data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) confirms that there has been a continuous net injection in EU storage since the end of March, which marks the start of the filling season.

Under the EU Gas Storage Regulation (EU/2022/1032), the EU set the objective to fill storage to 90% of capacity by 1 November. In the past 2 years, this target was already achieved more than 2 months ahead of deadline. Moreover, to facilitate storage refill and prevent price signal distortion this summer, the Commission adopted a Recommendation on 5 March 2025, calling on EU countries to consider market conditions and the available flexibility provisions when deciding on measures to refill storages this summer.

Background

On 5 March, the European Commission proposed to prolong the current Gas Storage Regulation until the end of 2027. A report on the functioning of the Gas Storage Regulation, published at the same time, highlighted that it has ensured security of supply and lowered risks of supply disruption, thereby allowing the EU to advance efforts to reduce energy dependence on Russia.

Today’s ENTSOG Summer Supply Outlook 2025 is accompanied by a Review of the Summer Supply 2024 and complemented with an overview of Winter 2025/26.

ENTSOG publishes its Summer Supply Outlook 2025 with Summer Supply Review 2024 and Winter 2025/26 overview

ENTSOG has today published its Summer Supply Outlook 2025 and the accompanying Review of Summer Supply 2024, as required by Art.26(3)(g) of Regulation (EU) 2024/1789. Like the previous edition, the Summer Supply Outlook report is supplemented with an overview of Winter 2025/26.

The ENTSOG Summer Supply Outlook assesses injection levels and the possible evolution of demand, supply, and exports from 1 April to 30 September 2025. A number of supply scenarios were applied, including minimised Russian gas imports and a full Russian pipeline supply disruption, as well as cases for high, reference and low LNG supply potential. Furthermore, exports to Ukraine and Moldova are considered in the simulations.

The assessment shows that:

On 1 April 2025, EU gas stock levels were at 34% (388 TWh/~ 35 bcm) which is lower compared to the previous two years, due to extensive use of storage facilities in Europe during previous winter.
To replenish gas storage in preparation for the upcoming winter, Europe will require a higher volume of LNG compared to the previous summers, considering storage levels at the beginning of summer season 2025.
It is essential to start gas storage replenishment as early as possible. Any unplanned maintenance could potentially put additional pressure on the refilling season.
Existing European gas infrastructure and newly commissioned projects, including LNG terminals, are boosting import capacity and flexibility, enabling greater LNG inflows and more efficient cooperation among Member States, thereby strengthening energy security in the EU.

Piotr Kuś, ENTSOG General Director, commented, ‘This assessment again shows the importance of storage to ensure security of supply, providing the seasonal flexibility needed during the winter season. It is critical to start injecting gas as early as possible and monitor filling throughout the summer season and keep storage at an adequate level until the end of the winter. The continued supply of LNG is also essential, to avoid demand curtailment in certain situations.”

This report additionally includes an overview analysis for Winter 2025/26. It shows that starting from a stock level of 34% on 1 April 2025, the injection and withdrawal capacities of the gas storage facilities combined with the supply flexibility of imports are sufficient to cover the demand and reach the inventory target level above 30% at the end of the winter in all EU countries.

Securing an adequate level of LNG supplies to Europe is necessary to either:

Mitigate the risk of longer injection period or lower storage levels in summer 2025 in the event of a full disruption of Russian pipeline supplies, or
Avoid a policy-based or price-based demand response to prevent full depletion of storages by the end of the 2025/26 winter season.

It is important to note that these assessments are not forecasts of expected gas supply – gas supply is influenced by factors external to infrastructure readiness, such as policy and market decisions.

To complement the Supply Outlook report, ENTSOG also undertook a review of the Summer 2024. The review shows that:

Total gas demand values in Summer 2024 dropped 2.7% compared to Summer 2023 and by 17.9% compared to the 5-year average at the EU.
Total supply to European countries showed a 6.4% decrease compared to 2023, due to lower gas consumption and high storage filling rate at the beginning of the injection period.
The LNG share decreased to 29%, down from 37% in Summer 2023.
The gas supply by pipelines was 53.5% in the total supply mix, with Norway being the biggest pipeline gas supplier.

The Summer Supply Outlook 2025 & Summer Supply Review 2024 reports are available here.

Source – ENTSOG publishes its Summer Supply Outlook 2025 (with Winter 2025/26 overview) and Summer Supply Review 2024