Dutch gas reserve now at 90% of capacity, exceeding EU target of 80%

The Dutch gas storage facilities are 90 percent full, and the Netherlands will easily get through the winter, the Gasunie told BNR. With that, the Netherlands more than achieved the European target of gas stocks filled to 80 percent by November 1.

With the gas storage facilities 90 percent full, the Netherlands can even cope with a severe winter without Russian gas, Gasunie said. “The expectation is that there will be no gas shortage this winter,” a spokesperson told the broadcaster.

Initially, Gasunie assumed that with a gas stock of 80 percent, the Netherlands could handle a winter with an average temperature of 3.6 degrees without any problems. Gasunie used 2005’s winter as a model. Based on the winters this past decade, there is a one in ten chance that this winter will be worse than 2005, according to BNR. The last winter colder than 2005 was in 2013 when the Netherlands had an average temperature of 2.9 degrees.

European countries started filling their gas supplies earlier this year, fearing Russia would cut off its supply in retaliation for Europe’s support for Ukraine. Those concerns now don’t seem unfounded. This week, someone sabotaged two Russian pipelines in the Baltic Sea, the Nordstream 1 and 2.