Hungary has decided to strengthen security around its section of the TurkStream gas pipeline and place it under military control following an incident on Serbian territory, according to the Telegram channel “Serbian Economist”.
According to the report, the decision was made after an emergency meeting of the defence council convened by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said the military would guard the entire Hungarian section of the pipeline — from the border with Serbia to the border with Slovakia.
The move followed an incident in Serbia, where, according to Serbian and Hungarian authorities, powerful explosive devices were found near gas infrastructure through which Russian gas is delivered to Hungary and further into the region.
At the same time, the episode has already triggered political debate. Some publications and commentary in the region question the official version of events and suggest the story may have a political dimension, particularly against the backdrop of the election campaign in Hungary.
Ukraine, for its part, has officially rejected any attempts to link it to the incident in Serbia.
Ukraine, which entered the 2025/26 heating season with gas reserves of 13.2 billion cubic meters, imported an additional 4.6 billion cubic meters to get through it, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy Denys Shmyhal said.
“Ukraine has successfully completed the heating season, despite Russia’s numerous attempts to destroy our energy system. This was achieved, in particular, thanks to the accumulation of sufficient resources,” he wrote on Saturday in a Telegram post following the results of a meeting of the Winter Headquarters for the Elimination of the Consequences of the Energy Emergency.
The Minister of Energy noted that the capacity of the Trans-Balkan Corridor had been increased to 4.2 billion cubic meters of gas per year
Shmyhal also reported that in 2025, Ukrainian gas production amounted to 16.97 billion cubic meters, which is 2.4 billion cubic meters more than forecast, with the private sector demonstrating growth of over 14%.
He added that all nine nuclear power plant units were operational with a total installed capacity of 7,835 MW, and thanks to the maximum electricity import capacity being increased to a record level of 2,450 MW, approximately 3.6 billion kWh were imported in December–February.
The country had sufficient coal reserves throughout the winter: 2.4 million tons of coal were stockpiled, which is 0.8 million tons more than planned, the First Deputy Prime Minister also noted.
He did not specify what gas and coal reserves Ukraine had at the end of the heating season.
According to former Energy Minister Olha Buslavets, since mid-March of this year, gas withdrawal from UGS facilities has shifted to a small injection of about 2 million cubic meters per day. Natural gas reserves in Ukraine’s UGS facilities stood at 9.6 billion cubic meters at the end of March, which is 4.0 billion cubic meters higher than last year, Buslavets wrote on Facebook.
The industry publication ExPro estimated gas production in 2024 at 19.12 billion cubic meters.
In India, amid a severe shortage of liquefied petroleum gas, demand is growing for traditional fuels, including firewood and dried cow dung.
The crisis was triggered by disruptions in LPG shipments through the Strait of Hormuz amid the war in the Middle East. Reuters and other outlets report that India, where about 65% of cooking fuel relies on imports, is facing one of the most serious gas crises in recent decades, and authorities have already restricted industrial consumption to prioritize supplying households.
Amid the shortage, Indian media are reporting that some households and small businesses are returning to cheaper and more accessible fuel sources. In particular, the Times of India writes about the shift to coal, firewood, and kerosene in Jamshedpur, while Bloomberg notes a rise in biofuel sales.
According to the Times of India, commercial consumers in several Indian cities have faced a sharp rise in LPG prices, and supplies have either been cut or partially diverted to the black market. This has already led to higher costs for restaurants, bakeries, and small retailers, and some businesses have been forced to seek alternatives to gas.
In 2025, the population consumed 7.6 billion cubic meters, or 36% of the total 21 billion cubic meters of natural gas consumed in Ukraine, according to the DIXI Group analytical center, citing data from Energy Map.
“The second-largest segment in terms of volume is industry and other consumers—5.0 billion cubic meters (24%),” the center noted.
In turn, district heating companies that generate heat for households consumed 3.9 billion cubic meters of gas (18%), while district heating companies serving other consumers, particularly government agencies, consumed 2.5 billion cubic meters (12%).
Another approximately 2 billion cubic meters (10%) represent losses—a calculated figure defined as the difference between gross gas consumption and the sum of final consumption across all consumer categories.
According to DIXI Group data, last year gross gas consumption decreased by 4% compared to 2024 and by 31% compared to 2021. At the same time, gas consumption by district heating companies for residential needs increased (+17%), as did consumption by the population itself (+6%). At the same time, gas consumption by district heating companies for other consumers decreased by 16%, and by industry and other consumers—by 12%.
Compared to 2021, gas consumption by industry and other consumers fell by more than half (-54%). Gas consumption by district heating companies for the population also decreased (-24%), as did consumption by the population (-12%). In contrast, gas consumption by district heating companies for other consumers increased by 47%.
According to Serbian Economist, Azerbaijan has expressed its readiness to assist Montenegro in connecting to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP), said Dino Tutundzic, State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mining of Montenegro, in an interview with Report.az. According to him, Podgorica considers the Ionian-Adriatic Pipeline (IAP) to be a strategic regional project that should connect Montenegro to TAP and, through it, to the Southern Gas Corridor and Caspian supplies.
Tutundzic said that Montenegro plans to intensify negotiations with neighboring countries – Croatia and Albania – and focus on preparing the infrastructure base, after which it will be possible to talk about gas delivery to end consumers. He also noted Azerbaijan’s interest in participating in Montenegro’s energy projects, including in the renewable energy segment.
The issue of connecting Montenegro to TAP has its own specific features: the country still makes virtually no use of natural gas, as it has no gas market or gas distribution network. This is evident from the report of the Energy Community Secretariat, which explicitly states that “there is no gas market in Montenegro” and “there is no gas network.”
TAP is part of the Southern Gas Corridor, connecting supplies from the Caspian region to European markets via Greece, Albania, and the Adriatic Sea, with access to Italy.
https://t.me/relocationrs/2379
The average level of reserves in underground storage facilities in Europe fell to 29.99% at the end of the gas day on February 27, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe. This is 16 percentage points lower than the average for the last five years.
The fill rate of underground storage facilities in Germany and France, Europe’s leading economies, is significantly lower than the European average — 20.6% and 21.4%, respectively, and 10.7% in the Netherlands.
The spot price of gas with “day ahead” delivery on the benchmark European TTF hub closed at $387 per 1,000 cubic meters on Friday.
Since the beginning of 2025, the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine has ceased. Europe is trying to compensate for the shortage of Gazprom’s pipeline gas supplies by importing liquefied natural gas. At the end of 2025, countries in the region purchased 109 million tons of LNG (142 billion cubic meters after regasification), which is 28% more than in 2024. In February 2026, liquefied gas imports reached 9 million tons, which is 9% higher than a year earlier.
Despite high demand, there remains a large unused capacity reserve—on February 27, terminals were operating at 64% of their throughput capacity.
Europe entered the current heating season with incomplete underground gas storage facilities. The need to replenish the reserves used up during this period will be an additional factor driving demand on the global market throughout the coming year.
Given not only technical but also realistic and economic constraints that will limit the European injection campaign in the summer of 2026, the question of how much Europe will be able to fill its UGS facilities by next winter and how risky the 2026/27 heating season will be will be relevant.
