Can cushion gas cushion the blow of winter?

European gas storage has been struggling to fill this summer for a variety of well documented reasons. As a result, storage will only be 75% full at the end of October at 83 bcm, 14 bcm below the five-year average. Going into winter, this shortage of available storage is one of the major concerns in the market. In a recently published winter outlook for gas in Europe, we argue that a cold European winter could result in storage levels falling to zero by the end of March 2022, unless more Russian gas supply is available vs current export levels. But if Russian exports do remain at current levels and a cold winter draws storage levels to zero, there could be an alternative option – that is the use of the substantial amount of cushion gas available in Europe’s storage facilities.