With today’s interim political agreement between the Council and the European Parliament on gas storage legislation, a major step toward improving EU supply security in the context of the war in Ukraine was made. The proposed legislation intends to guarantee that EU storage capacity are fully utilised before to the winter season and that they may be shared among member states.
During inter-institutional deliberations, the co-legislators decided that underground gas storage on member states’ territory should be filled to at least 80% of capacity by the winters of 2022/2023 and 2023/2024, and to 90% before the following seasons.
In 2022, the Union will make a collaborative effort to fill 85 percent of subterranean gas storage capacity. To minimise a disproportionate impact on specific member states with large storage capacity, the filling duty will be limited to a volume of 35 percent of annual gas consumption of member states during the previous five years.
The provisional agreement also provides that member states might count reserves of liquefied natural gas (LNG) or other fuels held at facilities to satisfy the 90 percent threshold.
The co-legislators decided that member states lacking storage facilities would have access to gas storage reserves in other member states. Member states without subsurface storage facilities will utilise storage capacity equal to 15% of their annual gas consumption over the last five years to share the financial burden of filling commitments. Member states might also organise the formation of an alternate burden-sharing system.
