European underground gas storage facilities were 57.87% full in early August 2026, against 70% a year earlier, the lowest level since 2011 according to OilPrice.com; TASS reported injection rates at a three-year low; record imports of Russian LNG in the first half of 2026 have failed to narrow the gap with last year's storage levels, raising concerns about winter supply adequacy
The Gazprom-operated export pipeline network that once supplied 40% of EU gas, dismantled by Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion and now banned under EU Regulation EU/261/2026.
full dossier ›Ukraine's General Staff says overnight strikes set the Orenburg Gas Processing Complex ablaze and hit two satellite communications centres; the facility produces helium for Russian missiles and ethane for rocket propellants
Natural gas is the world's swing fuel, priced on six regional benchmarks whose gaps reveal who controls supply and who bears the risk.
An eight-day shutdown of the only remaining transit route foreshadows the EU's full Russian-gas phase-out by 2028