Page 13 - EurOil Week 06 2023

EurOil POLICY EurOil

Germany’s THE stocks up on gas

ahead of next winter

GERMANY TRADING Hub Europe (THE), the organisa- storage.”
tion that has been tasked with filling Germany’s Germany’s gas storage facilities are currently
Germany is bracing underground gas storage facilities, said on Mon- 77.25% full, according to data disclosed by Gas
itself for next winter. day, February 6 it had contracted substantial Infrastructure Europe (GIE). That is significantly
storage capacity for next winter to provide the more gas than there was a year ago, as the coun-
country with a sufficient supply buffer. try has been trying to limit gas withdrawals to
The reported that it had booked 35 TWh of save supplies for next winter.
capacity at gas caverns in Wolfersberg, Katharina The caverns that THE is responsible for filling
and Rehden, the country’s largest. It had co-or- comprise about a quarter of Germany’s overall
dinated the booking with Germany’s economy gas storage capacity.
ministry and the country’s national network Despite Germany’s efforts at reducing gas
regulator. usage, the head of network regulator BNetzA,
The has so far spent €9.3bn ($10bn) on pur- Klaus Mueller, warned last week that households
chasing gas for storage, spearheading German and businesses did too little to save supplies in
efforts to stock up on the fuel ahead of next win- the second half of January. He made a similar
ter in the absence of Russian supply. Germany warning in the previous week, stating that Ger-
had its Russian gas supply completely cut off in many needed to cut its gas consumption by at
summer after Gazprom restricted capacity flow least a fifth to make up for the loss of Russian
via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. With the pipeline supply.
now inoperable as a result of suspected sabotage Germany was previously the biggest buyer
in September, and with westward flow via the of Russian gas, with that supply covering more
Yamal-Europe rendered impossible as a result than two thirds of its consumption prior to war
of sanctions, it is unlikely that this supply will breaking out in Ukraine.
return anytime soon. Industrial consumers were responsible for
The bookings that THE announced on Feb- the bulk of reductions in gas usage late last year,
ruary 6 account for 14% of Germany’s total gas but the decline in wholesale prices since late
storage capacity, the company said. December has resulted in some of that consump-
The bookings announced on Monday tion returning.
account for 14% of Germany’s total gas storage Despite his warning, though, Mueller said
capacity, THE said. that Germany’s high level of gas in storage still
“In the current situation, a precautionary was “good” and would help the country prepare
measure with a view to the winter of 2023/2024 for next winter. The government’s target for stor-
appears sensible and necessary to a certain age utilisation at the start of February had been
extent,” it added in a statement. “The booked only 40%. Countries across Europe have sur-
capacities are intended to ensure that some of passed their recent storage targets as a result of
the volumes procured in 2022 can remain in unseasonably warm weather. ™

Week 06 08•February•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P13