According to a report, German gas storage facilities are currently filling up faster than planned. “The October storage target of 85 percent should already be reached by the beginning of September,” quoted the magazine “Der Spiegel” on Sunday from an internal memo from the Federal Ministry of Economics.
This makes it more likely that an acute gas shortage can be avoided in winter.
On Friday, the fill level was 82.2 percent. The purchase of Russian gas has fallen significantly. “In August, only nine and a half percent of gas consumption came through the Russian pipelines,” the magazine quoted from the paper.
This is also due to the low summer consumption. However, hardly any fluctuations in the supply from Russia at the start of the heating season are expected in the coming weeks.
“Most of Russia’s pipeline import volumes were compensated for in other ways,” the note said. In the past few months, natural gas purchases from Norway and the Netherlands and imports of liquid gas have increased significantly.
Belgium has also increased gas feed-in since April. According to the ministry note, France should now be a new source of supply.
“The memory fills up faster than specified,” Habeck told the “Spiegel”. “Companies should then be able to withdraw the gas as planned over the winter in order to also supply industry and households”. “It is a very challenging situation and major savings are definitely still necessary, but we are prepared as a country,” said Habeck with cautious optimism.
