The European natural gas system through the lens of data platforms

European Union legislation obliges natural gas transmission system operators to publish key transport indicators on a transparency platform operated by the European Network of Gas Transmission System Operators for Gas (ENTSOG). Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) maintains similar transparency initiatives, providing data on the use of liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals as well as underground gas storage facilities. These platforms have become a useful source of information for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers that is available to the general public at no cost. We demonstrate that these data platforms essentially represent an archive of the European natural gas system and how the security of supply situation of Europe can be monitored in almost real time by analyzing the evolution of flow patterns on a daily basis as well as longer time horizons. In particular, we show how the system has reacted to infrastructure expansions, disruptions, and an evolving geopolitical context. •EU’s security of gas supply can be monitored with ENTSOG/GIE transparency platforms.•Research on modeling the EU’s gas system could benefit from public data platforms.•The EU gas network has entered unprecedented operational regimes since 2022.•Publicly available gas data help explain the EU gas network operational changes.