Federal Network Agency gives the all-clear for gas storage in winter

Dusseldorf. The Federal Network Agency has addressed concerns that Germany's gas storage facilities may not be sufficient for gas supplies this winter. “We already have a little more gas in the storage than we took out of the storage in the entire last winter half of the year,” said head of the authority Klaus Müller to the German Press Agency in Bonn. “And there will be time for further storage in the next few weeks.”

A little more than 136 terawatt hours of gas are currently stored, which is a good 55 percent of their capacity. According to the network agency, almost 134 terawatt hours were withdrawn throughout last winter.

Compared to previous years, the gas storage level is low. That's why concerns have been expressed in recent days that the amount of gas stored may not be enough until spring. The possibility of government-mandated orders was also discussed - although these are possible, they are likely to be expensive.

The gas storage operator association Ines recently spoke of “historically low filling levels” and called for other rules to make storing gas worthwhile again. However, the comparison with filling quantities of the past is somewhat awkward, as there are now ship terminals for liquefied natural gas (LNG) on Germany's coasts and this means that extra capacities can be imported from the world market quite quickly. There are also pipelines from Norway, for example.

Authority chief Müller also pointed out the possibility of LNG imports: "The LNG terminals currently have a capacity utilization of around 45 percent. There is sufficient capacity to import additional gas."

Like the Federal Ministry of Economics, Müller is currently not in favor of government intervention. Rather, he relies on the free market. “It is the dealers’ job to fill the storage facilities,” said the head of the authority, emphasizing that the dealers have delivery obligations to municipal utilities and industrial companies. “They can meet these obligations through deliveries via pipelines, LNG imports or withdrawals.” They had to fulfill these requirements and therefore took precautions. “State intervention would be expensive in any case,” said Müller.