Europe is entering winter with its lowest level of natural gas reserves since 2013, which could extend pressure on the international market into 2027, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Tuesday.
Europe's natural gas storage reservoirs were 75% full at the end of October, well below the minimum target of 80% fixed by the European Union and at its lowest level in more than a decade, the IEA said.
Several factors explain the situation.
Natural gas liquifaction facilities in the Gulf have been damaged in US-Iran war, while transit through the Strait of Hormuz has been reduced.
Moreover European nations are filling their storage reservoirs from low levels at the end of the heating season in the spring.
Buyers had initially held off buying stocks in the hope prices would fall.
Deliveries stepped up in August, September and October, but not enough to make up for the delay, the IEA said.
The amount of gas injected into storage reservoirs this season was about four percent below the average of the past five years, it added.
That makes European nations more dependent upon securing deliveries of additional supplies of LNG to meet peak demand.
It could also make more vulnerable if the winter is colder than usual, there are technical problems in the gas networi, or supply problems, said the IEA.
Germany insisted on Monday that it would have enough gas for the winter despite missing a storage target.
German gas storage facilities are on average 61% full, according to the federal agency that oversees Germany's energy infrastructure and markets.
That is below a legally mandated target for 70% by November 1. It also lags behind the European Union average of nearly 75%, according to the storage tracking platform AGSI.
