Monitoring the security of gas supply in the European Union

In late 2021, an energy crisis emerged in the European Union (EU) as a result of (i) high energy prices following the summer season and (ii) various geopolitical and technical events. These circumstances had an impact in the operation of the EU natural gas system and the security of gas supply of the EU was threatened. During 2022, three different regulations were adopted in record time to safeguard the security of gas supply in the EU. They are related mainly to imposing minimum levels of gas in underground gas storages (UGSs) at the beginning of the winter, recommending demand reduction measures on a voluntary basis, and enhancing solidarity through better coordination of gas purchases. As a consequence, the need for monitoring the natural gas system as closely in time as possible increased during the energy crisis. In this context, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) monitored the operation of the EU natural gas sector, including UGSs, liquefied natural gas (LNG) regasification terminals, and transport of gas via pipeline. This monitoring is carried out daily and weekly with three publicly available data platforms that collect natural gas-related information. First, the European Network for Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG) manages a Transparency Platform (TP) containing gas transport indicators. Second, Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) collects information about UGSs by means of its Aggregated Gas Storage Inventory (AGSI+). Third, GIE also provides indicators for the large-scale LNG terminals via its Aggregated LNG Storage Inventory (ALSI). In addition, the in-house ENaGaD database provides daily natural gas consumption by member state and broken down by sector for some countries. The main goals of this report are twofold: (i) it examines the operation of the EU natural gas system in 2022 and compares it to historical records, and (ii) it presents tools for monitoring daily the EU's natural gas system operation using public transparency platforms