New Delhi, Aug. 18 -- With winter still months away, Germany cannot afford to wait. The country's underground gas storage facilities stood at just 49.68 percent capacity as of August 17, below where they sat at the same point in every recent year - and the director of INES, the industry body overseeing Germany's gas storage operators, said last week that current injection rates are insufficient to reach a safe level before heating demand peaks.

a level not seen since 2011. The European gas storage crisis of early 2026 has been recovering, but not at the rate the continent needs.

European Union storage facilities stood at 60.8 percent as of Monday, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data - the industry association that runs the conti...