Europe slowed its stockbuild over the past two weeks, while a heatwave in southern Europe lifted gas-fired generation.
EU countries net injected 3.9 TWh/d into storage on 11–23 June, down from 4.3 TWh/d on 29 May–10 June. Firms added 42.7TWh of gas to storage and left sites replenished at 56pc, or 637.7TWh.
Northwestern Europe injected an average of 1.9 TWh/d over the past fortnight, down from 2.2 TWh/d in the previous two weeks. Germany, home to the largest storage capacity sites in Europe, accounted for nearly half, with injections averaging 869 GWh/d on 11-22 June. Private firms have booked only 64pc of German storage so far, or 158TWh. Central and eastern Europe injected 1.2 TWh/d, broadly in line with the past two weeks.
The slowdown was driven mainly by tighter supply, with planned maintenance and disruptions across gas facilities limiting the gas available for injections. Maintenance at Norway's Kollsnes and scheduled works at the 79.8mn m³/d Nyhamna processing plant reduced flows to France to 108 GWh/d — from 491 GWh/d in May — on 13 June, forcing the country to turn to storage withdrawals to meet domestic consumption and demand from neighbouring markets.
A prolonged heatwave also supported cooling demand, particularly in Mediterranean countries. In Madrid, maximum temperatures hovered at 6–7°C above seasonal norms on 18–23 June, peaking at 38°C, lifting demand for combined-cycle gas turbines. Milan saw temperatures of 2–5°C above seasonal norms during the period, further supporting gas use and tightening supply for injections. In France, heat had a limited impact on consumption, but low river flows and high Rhone temperatures could prompt nuclear cuts in the following days, potentially lifting gas-fired generation.
Europe's supply in the past two weeks also has been affected by planned maintenance at France's 6mn t/yr Fos Cavaou and Belgium's 11.4mn t/yr Zeebrugge import terminals. LNG sendout from Fos Cavaou averaged 94 GWh/d on 11-24 June, compared with 309 GWh/d on 1-10 June, while Zeebrugge's sendout averaged 414 GWh/d, down from 609 GWh/d over the same period. Total sendout at European terminals averaged 4.2 TWh/d on 11–22 June, down from 4.4 TWh/d on 27 May-10 June and broadly in line with May levels when Montoir and Zeebrugge terminals were undergoing major maintenance.
The EU continues to negotiate a final legal text to reduce the bloc's mandatory storage target to 83pc from 90pc. This could lower the effective EU-wide target to about 70.6pc, once national reductions are factored in. If the EU maintains the 90pc target, firms would need to inject 2.94 TWh/d until 1 November, still below the average of the past two weeks.
