Europe's gas surplus narrows

LONDON, June 12 (Reuters): Europe's gas storage has got off to an unusually slow start to the refill season, narrowing the record seasonal surplus inherited from last winter and boosting prices back well above the long-term average.
Inventories in the European Union and the United Kingdom have accumulated by just 148 terawatt-hours (TWh), or 2.1 TWh per day, since March 31, data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) show.
The refill was the second-slowest since 2012 and well below the prior ten-year seasonal average of 206 TWh, or 2.9 TWh per day.
Europe emerged from the warm winter of 2023/24 with a record amount of gas still in storage, so a relatively slow refill was required to ensure space did not run out before the onset of winter 2024/25.
But the unusually slow start to the refill season has already whittled away some of the surplus and reduced the probability of space running out.
Stocks were 219 TWh (+37 per cent or +1.57 standard deviations) above the prior ten-year average on June 9, but the surplus had narrowed from 277 TWh (+70 per cent or +2.03 standard deviations) when winter ended on March 31.