Data from May 2025.
Planned article update: June 2026.
Highlights
This article looks at monthly cumulated data on natural gas in the European Union (EU) for 2023 and 2024, as well as changes between these two years. It covers all aspects of the supply side - primary production, imports (entries) and exports (exits), stock changes, inland demand - as well as natural gas energy dependency data by EU country and for the European aggregates, i.e. the EU and euro area.
Consumption trends
In 2024, inland demand of natural gas in the EU increased by 0.6% compared with 2023, to raise to 12 802 111 terajoules. The largest increases in consumption were recorded in Greece (31.3%), Finland (9.5%) and Lithuania (9.2%), while the largest drops occurred in Portugal (16.7%), Malta (7.1%) and Croatia (5.4%). In 2024, Germany, Italy and France had the highest inland demand with 3 016 962 terajoules, 2 357 157 terajoules and 1 309 178 terajoules respectively (see Table 1, Table 2 and Figure 2).
In Table 1 and Table 2, a negative dependency rate indicates a net exporter country. Positive values over 100% indicate stocks build-up during the reference period.
).png)
Source: Eurostat (nrg_cb_gasm)
)_2.png)
Source: Eurostat (nrg_cb_gasm)
).png)
Supply structure
Natural gas production
EU natural gas production continued its decreasing trend, falling by 12.4% in 2024 compared with 2023, to 1 167 988 terajoules. The now EU's largest natural gas producer, Romania, registered an increase in production of 0.9% with a natural gas production of 359 943 terajoules in 2024, followed by the Netherlands, whose primary production equaled 322 642 terajoules (a drop of 18.1%), and Germany, whose primary production was 136 227 terajoules (a decrease of 5.1%) (see Figure 3).
Source: Eurostat (nrg_cb_gasm)
Natural gas imports
Total EU imports of natural gas decreased by 7.5% to reach 17 089 396 terajoules. The most significant increases in 2024 compared with 2023 among the main importers, i.e., countries importing at least 500 000 terajoules, was observed in Slovakia (18.1%), Bulgaria (17.8%) and Poland (15.8%) whereas the main decreases were recorded in Belgium (-19.5%), the Netherlands (-14.6%) and Spain (-14.4%) (see Figure 4).
).png)
Source: Eurostat (nrg_cb_gasm)
It is important to remember a methodological change in reporting monthly natural gas trade since reference month January 2013. The monthly reporting provides import figures as entries from the last transit country (mostly neighbouring countries) instead of the country of origin (i.e. the country of primary/indigenous production) and export figures as exits from the reporting country (thus including all natural gas transiting its national territory). This is different from the methodology for annual data, where the ultimate origin of imports is reported, thus excluding all natural gas transit, also from export figures.
Source data for tables and graphs
Data sources
All data used in this article correspond to cumulative monthly figures and may differ from the annual data.
The reporting is based on Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics.
Context
Timely data are essential to all stakeholders for an efficient monitoring of the market evolutions, especially in the energy domain. Therefore, Eurostat not only collects detailed annual statistics but also complements them with a reduced number of data points collected on a monthly basis. The reporting deadline for countries to transmit monthly natural gas statistics to Eurostat is within 55 days after the end of the reference month. Eurostat validates received data and publishes them as soon as validated. In this framework, the natural gas monthly data covers its supply – and to a limited extent its consumption, thus providing early information about the developments in the natural gas market both in the EU and in each Member State.
Explore further
Other articles
Database
- Energy Statistics - quantities, monthly data (nrg_quant)
- Energy Statistics - supply, transformation, consumption (nrg_10m)
- Supply - gas - monthly data (nrg_103m)
- Energy statistics - imports (by country of origin) (nrg_12m)
- Imports (by country of origin) - gas - monthly data (nrg_124m)
- Energy statistics - exports (by country of destination) (nrg_13m)
- Exports (by country of destination) - gas - monthly data (nrg_134m)
- Energy Statistics - supply, transformation, consumption (nrg_10m)
Thematic section
Publications
- Energy, transport and environment indicators - 2020 edition
Selected datasets
- Energy Statistics - quantities (t_nrg_quant)
- Gross available energy by product (ten00121)
- Final energy consumption by product (ten00123)
- Energy dependence (t2020_rd320)
Methodology
- Energy statistics - supply, transformation, consumption (monthly) (ESMS metadata file — nrg_10m_esms)
Legislation
- Regulation (EC) No 1099/2008 on energy statistics
Visualisation
- Explore monthly energy data - This interactive tool helps you to obtain an overview of seasonal energy trends in Europe or your country.
- Discover the world of energy trade - With this interactive tool you can easily discover the main trading partners of your country and visualise the trade flows in different ways.