With this, Reiche is taking the next step towards more secure German gas supplies. As early as mid-September, the minister had asked the federal gas importer to buy gas to fill the storage facilities, as the Handelsblatt reported.
At that time, however, it was explicitly not an instruction to Sefe, as the company had officially announced. Rather, the company “made an independent commercial business decision.”
That's different now. By tightening its course, Reiche is reacting to the still low filling levels of the German gas storage facilities before the upcoming winter. The central reason for the step lies in the ongoing geopolitical risks, it was said in ministry circles.
In recent months, the CDU politician has rejected premature intervention in the gas market in order not to drive up prices unnecessarily. At the same time, she emphasized that she had prepared instruments for different scenarios.
This need has now arisen. “Commissioning the Sefe with additional procurement is one of these prepared instruments,” says the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The gas storage level in Germany is currently around 57 percent, in previous years it was usually around 70 percent. It is said that the implementation of the filling of booked storage capacities by market players is inadequate. Despite the instruction to Sefe, the expectation remains that all other market players will fulfill their obligation to store gas for the winter “without any ifs and buts”.
The low filling level of the gas storage facilities brings back memories of the situation in 2022. The traffic light coalition at the time spent billions of dollars in tax funds to ensure that the storage facilities were filled after Russia stopped its deliveries to Germany.
But Reiche's instructions to Sefe cannot be compared with this. Ministry circles emphasize that Sefe retains room for maneuver despite the instructions. The company will decide for itself which quantities will be stored at what point in time and will procure the quantities through additional deliveries in order not to affect the storage of other market participants.
In 2022, the traffic light commissioned Trading Hub Europe GmbH (THE) to carry out the purchasing. Critics said that securing the gas supply had been bought at too high a price: the state had signaled its willingness to replenish stocks “at any price”, thereby fueling speculation and driving up the price level further.
THE is therefore not a gas importer of global importance. The company only uses the European gas exchange TTF. Uniper and Sefe, on the other hand, are active in the global gas business.
The fact that Reiche will not go as far as 2022 is also due to the current supply situation. Despite the noticeably low storage levels, no bottlenecks are foreseeable. The stored quantities are well distributed, imports are running and the situation on the European gas market overall does not give cause for concern. This also applies to a cold winter and additional import disruptions.
The fact that Reiche initially refrained from giving instructions to Sefe and continued to give the company leeway is probably also related to the upcoming privatization. Apparently the impression should be avoided that the ministry is intervening in day-to-day business. With the explicit instructions, this impression is now more difficult to avoid.
The fact that the federally owned gas importer Uniper is not included in the campaign is probably related to tensions between the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Ministry of Economics. While Sefe is controlled by the economics department, the finance department oversees the investment in Uniper.
It was recently said in government circles that the Ministry of Finance rejected such actions because it feared that they could have a negative impact on the company's planned privatization.
Sefe and Uniper were nationalized in the wake of the 2022 gas supply crisis. The EU Commission had linked the state's entry to the condition that the companies had to be privatized again by the end of 2028 at the latest. The federal government may then retain a maximum of 25 percent plus one share.
