John Kemp: Gas storage levels likely more than enough to cope with even the coldest winter

The challenge is how to cope with relatively high gas prices in the medium term if relatively inexpensive pipeline gas from Russia is permanently swapped for more expensive liquefied natural gas

Storage sites were a remarkable 99.6% full, which was more than 10 percentage points over the 89% average for the previous 10 years.

Europe’s gas inventories continued to accumulate much later than usual into the autumn as exceptionally mild weather delayed the onset of the winter heating season.

It was the culmination of an unusually long refill season which has left the continent's storage sites brimming with gas and eliminated fears about supply security.