Gas reserves in France's underground storage facilities fall below 25%

As of Monday, February 17, in the underground gas storage facilities (UGS) in France remained 24.87% of the resource, which is equivalent to about 3.2 billion cubic meters, although the country is among the top five leaders in terms of storage capacity. This is evidenced by the data of Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) on February 19.

Other European countries, leading in terms of storage capacity, are also rapidly emptying their reserves. Thus, in Slovakia UGS is filled at 50.45%, in Austria - at 54.27%, in Italy - at 55.03%.

The lowest indicators are shown by Croatia (24.54%), the Netherlands (29.79%), Belgium (31.39%), Romania (35.69%) and Denmark (36.94%).

The stocks of Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Latvia exceed 40%, but do not reach up to 50%. At the same time, the highest level of filling of storage facilities, almost reaching 100%, was recorded in Portugal. Sweden (88.05%), Spain (66.87%) and Poland (59.99%) are also among the leaders.

Not armed with gas: Netherlands supports sanctions against Russian LNG

Why the European Union refuses cheap energy resources, even though it is heavily dependent on their supply

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on February 14 that the European Union's economic strategy used to be based on Russia's energy resources, but after the rejection of them, the union needs a new plan. In 2022, the EU voluntarily deprived itself of cheap energy resources, which led to its uncompetitiveness, Orban specified.