EU’s gas consumption has plummeted throughout the last six months and is well within EU reduction targets, shows data from the statistical office of the European Union, Eurostat.

On average, gas consumption has dropped 19.3% between August 2022 and January 2023 compared to the 2017-2022 average of the respective months of those years.

EU announced its 15% reduction target in August last year as an attempt to rid the EU of its dependency on Russian fossil fuels.

”Between August 2022 and January 2023, among EU countries, Ireland (-0.3%) registered the smallest decrease in natural gas consumption in the reference period, while Spain (-13.7%) and Slovenia (-14.2%) recorded a significant drop but have not yet reached the 15% target,” writes Eurostat:

”In other EU members, consumption dropped beyond the 15% target, in some, by a large margin (above 40%).”

Finland achieves highest overall reduction of well over 50%.

The EU natural gas savings plan was announced last summer at a time when gas prices soared and politicians braced themselves for the event of Russia shutting down its gas export flows.

Back then, price on benchmark Dutch natural gas futures TTF came in at roughly EUR 200 per MWh and peaked on August 26 at EUR 339.20.

Price has come down substantially since then. On Tuesday afternoon, TTF comes in at EUR 48.50 per MWh – down 2.8% from Monday and the lowest level since August 2021.