In comparison to the average gas consumption during the same months (August-March) between 2017 and 2022, the EU’s natural gas consumption decreased by 17.7% between August 2022 and March 2023.
In order to reduce the EU’s reliance on Russian fossil fuels, the Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1369 on coordinated demand-reduction measures for gas set a reduction target of 15% for the period August 2022–March 2023 compared to the average of the same period of the five previous consecutive years.
The majority of EU nations met the -15% target, according to data, with the exception of Ireland (-0.2%), Slovakia (-1.0%), Spain (-10.8%), Poland (-12.5%), Slovenia (-13.8%), and Belgium (-14.5%), which saw smaller declines, and Malta (the EU member with the lowest gas consumption), which saw a 12.7% increase between August 2022 and March 2023.
The EU nations whose consumption plummeted the greatest were Finland (-55.7%), Lithuania (-40.5%), and Sweden (-37.2%); in some of the other EU countries, consumption fell by a significant amount (over 20%).
When examining monthly statistics for the period of January 2022 to March 2023, consumption was continuously lower than the corresponding months’ average for the years 2017–2022.
Natural gas usage in the EU ranged between 1 938 petajoules (PJ) in January and 785 PJ in July in 2022, demonstrating a monthly overall drop even before the Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1369’s aim of 15% gas reduction was established.
However, the largest drops were seen in the second half of 2022, starting in August with a 14.0% decline in consumption and continuing through December with drops of -12.3%, -14.3%, -24.4%, 25.0%, and -25.0%.
Further declines of 19.0% in January (1 593 PJ) and 14.7% in February (1 435 PJ) marked the beginning of 2023, according to WAM. The amount of natural gas consumed in March 2023 was 1 318 PJ, a 17.1% decrease from the 1 589 PJ average recorded between 2017 and 2022.
