On Thursday 7 April, the French Presidency of the Council of the European Union sent the Member States a framework note on the proposed regulation on gas storage aimed at preparing the EU for the coming winter in the event of a reduction or halt in Russian gas deliveries.
This note is intended to feed into the discussions between Member States’ experts at the next meeting of the EU Council’s Energy Working Group on Tuesday 12 April.
It focuses on the European Commission’s obligation to fill gas reserves and the distribution of the burden among the Member States.
According to the European Commission’s proposal, EU countries must ensure that underground gas storage facilities on their territory are filled to at least 80% of their capacity by 1 November 2022, and 90% in subsequent years, through filling trajectories (see EUROPE 12917/7).
For its part, Paris proposes that this obligation should concern Member States with a storage capacity of more than 15-20% (the rate is in square brackets and therefore not yet fixed) of their annual national consumption.
In addition, specific measures to take into account the situation of storage sites located on the territory of one Member State and connected only or mainly to the gas system of another Member State would be introduced.
The other Member States (those with no or less than 15-20% storage capacity) would be required to ensure that they have arrangements and/or to fill their storage capacity to cover at least 15-20% of their annual national consumption by 1 November.
They would have a period of one month (also in square brackets in the text) after the entry into force of the regulation to conclude an agreement. If no agreement is reached within this period, they would be required to demonstrate that storage capacity equivalent to the volume covered by the obligation has been reserved.
In order to allow some flexibility, the Presidency also suggests that Member States should have the option of taking into account LNG stocks in reaching their filling target, in case “exceptional and justified technical limitations would not allow the storage obligation to be met”.
If this is not possible, Member States with no or less than 15-20% storage capacity would also have the option of meeting their target through an equivalent alternative fuel storage obligation.
See the note (in French): https://aeur.eu/f/172 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)