Winter is Coming to the EU Whose Gas Storage Sits at Historical Lows

This week, we’ll talk, once again, about hydrocarbons in Europe, that is, the immediate and medium-term future of some 450+ million people currently living in what once used to be labelled ‘the Old World’.

Back in February 2026, this was the situation in Germany, of all places:

The expert, who knows the German gas market like no other, does not want to be quoted or recognised in any way. And he is not considered an alarmist either. But he says:

‘Everyone in the industry is now praying for warm weather.’ [I doubt anyone who is willing to see reality for what it is understands what this means: the risk of war is receding, for now, due to bad weather energy constraints; the risk of war™, however, is multiplying like rabbits in cornucopia, if only because this is the worst possible position for Germany to be in: unlike in the 1910s and 1930s, there’s not an inch of agency left for Berlin]

For ‘more’ where this came from, see this:

Needless to say, since 2025/26 was such a nail-biter and some, apparently (obviously) enjoyed that shitshow, we’re up for a re-run of that situation:

With this baseline established, let’s move on to what even (!) legacy media can’t really hide much longer.

Translation, emphases, and [snark] mine.

Via [Austrian state broadcaster] ORF.at, 20 Aug. 2026 [source; archived]

Despite a slow build-up of natural gas reserves ahead of winter, the European Commission sees no immediate threat to supply security in the EU. Storage facilities in the bloc are currently 62 per cent full, Commission spokeswoman Eva Hrncirova announced yesterday.

At the same time last year, the filling levels of EU-wide storage facilities was still at 74 per cent, according to data from the Gas Infrastructure Europe association.

EU countries are having difficulty building up sufficient reserves for the cold season. This is due to high natural gas prices resulting from the US-Israel war against Iran, which are discouraging companies from purchasing the fuel.

In Germany, storage facilities are just over 50 per cent full, which corresponds to approximately 123.4 terawatt-hours (TWh). The German Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the President of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, recently urged gas traders to fulfil their responsibility for winter supplies [now that’s a bit rich as Berlin nationalised Gazprom’s German subsidiary in 2022, which means that the gas traders (the state-owned company Uniper) and the German gov’t are kinda the same thing), as we’ve discussed the other day:

But sure, let’s have some virtue-signalling gov’t heckling of ‘gas traders’ (easy stuff, with the added benefit of chastising Mr. Market™ in-between) while, as we noted, Uniper = the German gov’t]

A few days ago, Germany’s largest gas company, Uniper, also warned that without a resolution to the Strait of Hormuz dispute, Germany could miss its storage targets for the winter. A fill level of 70 per cent is targeted by November [let’s check in with the Bundesnetzagentur who that is going:

Oh, look, it’s at 50.06% as of 17 Aug. 2026, and there’s no technical way of getting anywhere near to where gas storage facilities were at the beginning of October 2025 when they stood at about 75%. Last winter was a nail-biter, and I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to start praying for a mild winter.]

In Austria, according to the AGSI (Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory) from Gas Infrastructure Europe, gas storage facilities are currently 64.2 per cent full, which corresponds to 64.4 TWh.

Winter is coming, and of all EU gov’ts, the German one is either supremely incompetent (for sure) and/or criminally insane (both options are possible, I think).

Hence, Europeans are in for a double, if not triple-whammy next winter:

• a supply crisis due to failure on part of politicos™ and relevant private™ sector leaders to store enough natural gas for even a normal winter,

• augmented by a mad dash to buy whatever is left on the spot market sometime later this summer/autumn, which will further drive up prices,

• and the spectacle of watching the very same politicos™, experts™, and journos™ to declare, possibly multiple times per weak, that one baaaaaaadie (Mr. Putin, of course) or the other (Mr. Trump, needless to say), is responsible for this situation.

Needless to say, price spikes in early autumn will be (ab)used by politicos™ everywhere, with the Euroretards pointing at ‘the Strait of Hormuz’, which is closed to to the Euroretards’ ‘closest ally and friend’ (that would be both US and Israel); I do sense that these coming price spikes may (will) be further abused by the Neocons to go bomb Iran once more a tad heavier than this summer as the price spikes provide them with air cover, too.

Plus there’s the entire increase of EU dependency on Norwegian hydrocarbon production, which is declining now—looks like the peak occurred in 2025—and will cause ripple effects across Europe:

But I’m sure the same Euroretards who drove the car into the ditch and are pressing their feet down on the accelerator still are going to point at everyone else but them. And while there is some truth to, say, others—most obviously, Mr. Netanyahoo and Mr. Trump—being partially responsible, ultimate responsibility for this shitshow and the ensuing collateral damages rests with (drum roll) the Euroretards.

To be continued …