Year-to-date natural gas use has fallen by nearly a fifth in Luxembourg and by roughly a tenth in the EU. Library picture: An employee tightens the valve at a gas metering station near the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod, 21 May 2014. Photo credit: Gudak/Shutterstock.

Year-to-date natural gas use has fallen by nearly a fifth in Luxembourg and by roughly a tenth in the EU. Library picture: An employee tightens the valve at a gas metering station near the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod, 21 May 2014. Photo credit: Gudak/Shutterstock.

Natural gas users appear to have heeded politicians’ warnings to tighten the taps, in the grand duchy and across most of Europe.

Year-on-year natural gas consumption has fallen sharply in Luxembourg and across much of the EU.

Gas usage in the grand duchy dropped by double digits during the first half of the year. Luxembourg was bested by Estonia, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia and Finland in curtailing gas use.

Germany, France and Ireland recorded lesser savings, while Spain posted a year-on-year gain.

The latest --for June or for July, depending on the country--were published by the EU statistics agency Eurostat on the evening of 25 August.

Natural gas consumption in Luxembourg during the first six months of 2022 fell by 17% compared to January-June 2021. Consumption was 19% lower than the first half of 2016, which was a banner year for natural gas use.

Comparing the month of June alone, the latest available for the grand duchy, Luxembourg gas consumption dropped by 26% between 2021 and 2022.

European gas usage

Daniel Kral, a senior economist at the consultancy Oxford Economics, out that EU gas consumption was down by roughly 12% year-to-date, “but with large differences among member states. Nordics & Baltics in the lead; Italy has to do much more”.