Czech gas storage facilities are 93% full, meeting EU rules

Gas storage facilities in Czechia were 93% full in November, several percentage points more than a year earlier. The Czech Republic is therefore meeting EU rules. This follows from data from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MPO). By contrast, at the end of the previous winter, the facilities held the lowest amount of gas in recent years.

According to Lukáš Kaňok, director of the energy division at Kalkulátor.cz, Czechia prepared for this winter relatively quickly. At the turn of March and April, the facilities held the lowest amount of gas in recent years, he said. This was half as much as in the same period in 2023 and even three times less year on year. "Had winter lasted only a little longer, we might well have depleted them completely," he said.

According to Kaňok, domestic storage levels were already at their highest in four years in October. "The facilities were 93% full, which is well above the European average and the mandatory threshold," Kaňok noted. According to the latest available MPO data, the facilities also stood at the same level on 6 November.

In this context, Kaňok recalled that at the start of the war in Ukraine, the EU introduced an obligation to have storage facilities at least 80% full, rising to a minimum of 90% from 2023. Initially, countries had to meet this requirement by the beginning of November; they now only need to do so at any time between the beginning of October and the beginning of December. Czechia has therefore complied with the regulation since October.

According to Kaňok, Czechia is among the EU's top performers. However, European storage facilities held much less gas at the start of the heating season than in the previous two years.

"It now looks as though we are much better prepared for winter. But in the end, the weather will still decide. If temperatures do not remain well below freezing for extended periods and the heating season is no longer than last year, then it really does look set for a much more favourable outcome," Kaňok said.

However, he also warned of growing gas consumption.

At present, gas flows into Czechia only across the border from Germany. Previously dominant supplies from Russia were halted at the start of the year after Ukraine ended transit of Russian gas through its territory. According to the authorities, Czechia now sources gas, for example, from Norway, LNG from a terminal in the Netherlands, and Algeria.

The main operator of natural gas storage facilities in Czechia is state-owned company Gas Storage CZ. It operates six underground storage facilities: in Dolní Dunajovice, Tvrdonice, Lobodice, Štramberk and Třanovice in Moravia, as well as Háje near Příbram. Their total working capacity exceeds 2.7 billion cubic metres of natural gas, equivalent to around one-third of domestic annual consumption. Further reserves are managed by energy company MND, part of billionaire Karel Komárek's KKCG investment group.