The executive director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), Fatih Birol, said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at an energy forum organised by Foreign Policy magazine that Europe faces a “very harsh winter”, possibly one of the hardest in recent years, with gas storage at historically low levels, according to the TASS news agency.

Birol said European countries have decided to phase out Russian gas completely by 2027 and can no longer receive gas from the United Arab Emirates and Qatar because of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, pushing them to seek supply from the United States and Norway. European storage stood at 69% of capacity on September 17, 2026, below the 85% five-year average for the season, according to Reuters, which cites industry body Gas Infrastructure Europe.