European Commission eases requirements for Czech gas storage, allowing lower February filling level

The European Commission has set the amount of gas that individual member states must have stored in gas storage facilities on their territory during 2024. It lowered the mandatory February volume for the Czech Republic by five percentage points. Czech gas storage facilities will therefore only need to be filled to 40% of their storage capacity. 

During the energy crisis, the European Commission adopted several measures to strengthen the energy security of the EU-27. One of the first measures was the obligation for member states to ensure that storage facilities were 90% full before the heating season, by 1 November.

To prevent a rush to meet the 1 November target before the end of winter, the European Commission set several milestones during the year, at which it sets interim targets. These are set for 1 February, May, July and September. The European Commission determines the percentage of gas that must be stored at each milestone separately for each year, based on historical data from the previous five years.

Compared with last year, the Czech Republic has slightly less stringent conditions to meet by 1 February next year. While Czech storage facilities had to be 45% full last year, 40% will be sufficient to meet the requirement next year.

In 2023, storage facilities were always more than 55% full

Likely also thanks to measures adopted by the European Union in response to the energy crisis, storage facilities remained exceptionally well filled throughout the previous winter. European storage facilities entered the heating season at 95% full.

After a very warm December, when gas was even being injected into storage facilities, stocks gradually declined, reaching a low of 55% at the turn of March and April.

This has also helped make this year's natural gas stocks in storage facilities record-high. Since the beginning of October, storage facilities have been more than 95% full, and even today, after the start of the heating season, they remain filled to 99% of storage capacity.