Denmark to miss EU deadline for 90% gas storage fullness by Nov 1: DEA

The Danish Energy Agency has conceded it is no longer technically possible for Denmark to meet the EU-mandated gas storage filling target of 90% by Nov. 1 and has informed the European Commission of its position.

The delayed restart of production at the Tyra gas field and planned maintenance work on the Baltic Pipe delayed storage injections, a DEA spokesperson told S&P Global Commodity Insights late Oct. 23.

"The EC has been informed that Denmark will not reach the target by Nov. 1. It is still technically possible to reach the target by Dec. 1, which also has been communicated to the commission," the spokesperson said.

Danish gas storage sites were filled to just 73.8% of capacity as of Oct. 22, the latest data from Gas Infrastructure Europe showed.

Denmark mostly net withdrew from its gas storage sites through September due to planned maintenance work at Nybro, the entry point for Norwegian gas into Denmark via the Baltic Pipe.

The country had also been counting on full production from the newly redeveloped Tyra offshore gas field by now, but technical issues have delayed the ramp-up of production.

Gas levy

The introduction by Germany of a levy on gas exports also made it less attractive to export gas. The cross-border gas charge is due to be removed from the start of 2025 following widespread criticism and its impact on the European gas market.

The DEA spokesperson also said Denmark's gas storage capacity had increased by around 6% over the summer, meaning that the same quantity of gas now accounted for a smaller portion of the total capacity.

The EU required member states to fill their storage sites to 90% of capacity by Nov. 1 under rules introduced in June 2022.

The region as a whole reached the 90% target Aug. 19, well ahead of the Nov. 1 deadline, with all member states having broken through 90% at the national level, apart from Denmark and Latvia.

However, under the gas storage regulation, certain filling obligations are limited to avoid a disproportionate impact on member states with significant storage capacity, including Latvia.

Danish gas storage capacity is relatively small at around 10.4 TWh (1 Bcm). The DEA spokesperson said the overall gas supply situation in Europe was considered "good and stable."

Tyra output

Output from Tyra alone is expected to exceed Denmark's gas demand when full production is reestablished. Tyra is Denmark's biggest gas field with a technical capacity of 8.1 million cu m/d. It resumed production in March 2024 after going offline for redevelopment work in 2019.

However, technical issues were identified soon after in April 2024, with operator TotalEnergies having since undertaken several actions to resolve them, pushing back the ramp-up period for the field.

Tyra will ramp up to full capacity between Nov. 15 and Nov. 30, according to the French company's latest guidance Oct. 18. TotalEnergies had previously expected the ramp-up to full capacity to last until the end of 2024.

TotalEnergies runs Tyra on behalf of the Danish Underground Consortium, in which it holds a 43.2% share, along with Norway's BlueNord (36.8%) and Nordsofonden (20%).

Tyra's issues come as European gas prices remain relatively high. Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights, assessed the benchmark Dutch TTF month-ahead price at Eur41.35/MWh Oct. 23.

The redevelopment of Tyra was necessary due to the natural subsidence of the chalk reservoir at the field after many years of production.

Denmark turned to imports from Germany in 2019 when Tyra was taken offline and continued to import via Germany to help offset the loss of Russian gas in 2022, after Gazprom halted deliveries to Denmark's Orsted in June that year.