Gas inventories comprise the physical stores of gas and mainly consist of natural gas inventories, though also a small store of nitrogen, which we use for quality conversion. We maintain natural gas reserves to balance our gas transmission network and to fulfil our statutory duty to provide peak capacity in the Netherlands. The purpose of this statutory duty is to ensure security of supply for the small-scale consumer market in accordance with the statutory provisions. We can be called on to fulfil this duty in the event of a cold snap. One of the measures we have taken to ensure we can fulfil this duty is maintaining our own backup volumes of natural gas. We do not trade using our gas reserves.

The emission allowances concern emission allowances under the EU ETS. The balance of emission allowances recognised in the balance sheet is made up of surplus allowances available at the end of the financial year not needed to meet our obligations. We can use these allowances to settle future obligations.

The other inventories concerned work material kept for regular daily maintenance, for the company’s own present and future investments, and for projects we carry out for third parties and joint ventures.

In measuring the inventories at year-end 2024, we already took into account a write-down based on the lower recoverable amount. In 2024, we recognised an amount of € 3.5 million (2023: € 0.3 million) in profit and loss a result of the adjustment of the inventory valuation to the lower recoverable amount. This write-down strictly concerned other inventories and not the gas inventories or emission allowances.