European storage operators have called for regulatory changes for storage sites.Regulatory intervention might be necessary to provide a possible way forward for European storage facilities, Innogy Gas Storage's chief commercial officer, Lubor Veleba, said at the Flame conference in Amsterdam.
Storage is still important for Europe's supply security and remains a "key source of seasonal flexibility", but the "economic situation is miserable", he said.
Tight summer-winter spreads have weighed on operators' margins and some sites have been shut in recent months.
And "regulatory measures would be very welcome" to improve the situation for storage operators, Laszlo Fritsch, chairman of Hungarian firm Gas Storage, said.
Companies such as German utility Uniper had previously also called for new regulations and mooted the possibility of fixed returns for storage operators.
But the German government has pushed for market-based rules for security of supply, dismissing calls for regulated capacity and strategic reserves.
An initial regulatory change to benefit storage operators could be to remove entry and exit tariffs at the delivery point to facilities, Erich Holzer of Austria's OMV Gas Storage said at Flame.
High transport costs to and from storage in countries such as Germany and the Netherlands reduce the attractiveness of capacity, he said.
Removing these transport costs would be the "minimum reward for the system value" that storage provides, he said.
Discussions about reforming the French storage model, which could be "inspired by Italy", are still continuing, chief executive of France's Storengy, Cecile Previeu, said.
France was expected to reform its storage capacity allocation system from the start of the 2017-18 storage year, basing it on a series of auctions similar to those held in Italy.
The plans envisaged scrapping the obligation for firms supplying protected customers — households and certain public buildings — to store a certain volume of gas set each year by the energy ministry.
Instead, storage operators would receive a regulated return, with any shortfall in revenue following auctions supplemented by additional charges levied on France's system users.
But the reforms were delayed after the French government failed to meet a legislative deadline in August.
Further attempts to introduce reforms were put on hold ahead of the recent presidential elections, the French gas association said.
