EU gas storage sits at just 56.9% — the lowest late-July level since 2021 — offering only 99 days of consumption cover and an 80-day import interruption buffer, both post-2022 lows. Persistent Middle East tensions have blocked all Qatari LNG for three straight months, driving EU imports to their weakest in nearly two years and sending TTF prices up 19%. Meanwhile, Gazprom’s TurkStream flows rebounded 35% month-on-month to 45.7 mcm/d. Despite the EU’s phase-out timetable, Russian pipeline gas remains critical. Without it, Europe faces sharper price spikes, fiercer competition with Asia for scarce LNG, and dangerously thin winter buffers.
As of 31 July 2026, European gas inventories had risen modestly to around 56.9% of total storage capacity, up from 49.1% at the end of June, as the region continued to struggle to refill storage sites ahead of the coming winter. Despite this increase, levels remained the lowest for late July since 2021 and significantly below the five-year average (2021–2025), as shown in Figure 1.