After reports circulated that Germany might miss its November 1 target of filling up 95% of its gas reserves, the country’s storages are now reportedly 91.3% full.
Europe’s largest energy exporter has its gas coffers filled way ahead of its schedule, with current storage filled higher than EU average of 87.7% full storage.
Back in August 2022, Berlin announced that it hit the 85% level in its reserves by September 1, one month ahead of schedule. The announcement relaxed the gas futures market to make prices fall sharply back below €300.
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But the indefinite shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline has provoked uncertainty to the country’s capacity to meet its energy storage targets ahead of the winter season – especially now given the recent suspected sabotage of the pipeline that will truly make the gas source unavailable for an indefinite period of time.
Filling up more than 90% of Germany’s gas storage facilities has helped cooled down the Dutch benchmark after its recent spike induced by the discovered leaks on the Nord Stream pipelines.
Meanwhile, storage facilities in Poland, France, and Denmark are reportedly more than 95% full. The Netherlands, Italy, and Belgium are also said to be nearing 90% full of its storage capacities.
While Germany nears to filling up 100% its gas storage sites, a paper submitted by London School of Economics and Political Science’s Benjamin Moll argued that the reserves might just be enough for “about two winter months.”
Recently, Chancellor Olaf Scholz revealed the plan to inject about €8 billion into Dusseldorf-based gas firm Uniper, which makes the government its largest shareholder and effectively nationalizes the country’s biggest gas importer.
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One Response
Without a steady inflow of gas, how will Germany extract its reserves?
I suspect that those ‘reserves’ are just a buffer where seasonal excesses are stored but remain inaccessible without inflow.