Energy Community adopts Gas Storage Regulation to strengthen security of supply

The Ministerial Council of the Energy Community has adopted by written procedure the Gas Storage Regulation. The new rules require those Contracting Parties that have storages, notably Serbia and Ukraine, to fill them to at least 80% of capacity. Contracting Parties without underground gas storages but with gas in their energy mix are required to ensure that their market participants have in place arrangements in Contracting Parties and/or Member States with those facilities.

Director Lorkowski said: “The regulation’s adoption in record time, less than four months after the European Union, reflects the speed of action the Energy Community is taking to prepare against the threat of supply disruptions by Russia. The new gas storage rules will strengthen security of gas supply in time for this winter.”

From now on, gas storage system operators will have to undergo a certification procedure, which includes a binding opinion by the Energy Community Secretariat. The national certifying authority shall comply with that opinion in its final certification decision.