Europe's gas reserves are 90% full, two months ahead of schedule, according to data published on Wednesday by Gas Infrastructure Europe, the European federation of natural gas infrastructure operators.
Initially, the European Union aimed to achieve this capacity by 1 November. However, gas supplies are slightly down from last year (but still higher than the average of the past five years).
Following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Europe has been striving to reduce its reliance on Russian gas. This has made the market sensitive to sudden supply shifts for this energy source. Norway has usurped Russia as the primary natural gas supplier, with Europe heavily relying on stocks of liquified natural gas (LNG).
In Belgium, reserves have reached their full capacity, according to data from the Economy Ministry. Fluxys, the network manager, has an underground storage site in Loenhout, Antwerp.
Annually, Fluxys supplies 450,000 households from this site, equivalent to Belgium's entire industrial consumption for two and a half months, or 15% of the country's total consumption (including households, industries and gas power stations) during the 40 coldest days of the year.
