EU gas storage 75 percent full heading into winter

EU underground gas storage stood at 75 percent of capacity on October 21, below historical levels after a slow summer refill, ACER said in its summer 2026 gas monitoring report published on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Europe enters winter 2026-2027 with a thinner storage buffer, a refill bill ACER puts at up to 27 billion euros, and spot prices near 90 euros per megawatt hour in mid October, so winter weather and competition with Asia for flexible LNG cargoes will set the price.

Data as of ACER gas monitoring report on summer 2026 developments, summarised in the agency's news release dated October 27, 2026 and read in full in this run; storage figure as of October 21, 2026. Developing item.

EU gas storage reached only 75 percent of capacity by October 21 after ending winter 2025-2026 at 28 percent, against 34 percent a year earlier, ACER said, putting the upper bound cost of the 2026 refill at 27 billion euros with the average price of injected gas the second highest in a decade. The agency estimated that the Middle East conflict added 18 to 33 billion euros to Europe’s gas import bill for the same quantity of gas, with no significant volumes of Qatari LNG reaching the EU in summer 2026, US LNG at around 30 percent of total EU supply and total Russian gas at around 11 percent.

Spot EU hub prices closed near 90 euros per megawatt hour in mid October, gas fired generation rose by nearly 9 percent over the summer and by 20 percent in August on hot weather and drought, and ACER expects the EU to keep competing with Asia for flexible spot LNG cargoes through the heating season.

EU gas storage 75 percent full heading into winter

Sources