MOSCOW, February 20. /TASS/. Gas reserves in Italy’s underground storage (UGS) facilities have fallen below 50%, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
As of February 18, gas storage facilities in Italy – one of Europe’s leaders in storage capacity and currently holding the largest reserves among countries in the region – were filled to 49.67%.
Other European countries with significant storage capacity are also actively drawing down their accumulated fuel. Storage facilities in Germany are filled to just 21.6%, Austria to 38%, France to 22.5%, and the Netherlands to 13.1%. Slovakia’s facilities are 31.6% full, Hungary’s 37.9%, the Czech Republic’s 34.6%, Romania’s 40%, Bulgaria’s 45.7%, Belgium’s 24.4%, Denmark’s 27.6%, Latvia’s 21.6%, and Croatia’s 13.9%.
The previous gas withdrawal season in European underground storage facilities ended on March 28, 2025, when reserves stood at 33.57%. At present, Europe’s storage facilities are filled to just 31.97% – 16.64 percentage points below the average level for this date over the past five years – compared with 42.6% a year earlier. Since the start of the heating season on October 13, EU countries have withdrawn about 62 bln cubic meters of gas from storage. Net withdrawals have exceeded 56 bln cubic meters, already 1.5 bln cubic meters more than the volumes injected during the summer.