Once again, no Russian gas is flowing to Germany. Once again, Gazprom justifies this with technical problems with the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. But even without Russian gas, there is initially no gas shortage in Germany. The reservoirs are even being filled further.
Despite the ongoing supply freeze, natural gas can still be stored in Germany. This was announced by the industry association Initiative Energies Storage (INES). According to INES spokesman Sebastian Bleschke, last Wednesday, the first day of the delivery interruption, already showed that this is possible. The bottom line was that 611 gigawatt hours of gas were added to the storage facilities nationwide on this day.
Russian gas giant Gazprom has suspended gas supplies to Germany through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline indefinitely. The delivery stop, which began on Wednesday, was initially justified with regular maintenance work on a compressor station. Deliveries were supposed to resume this morning, but on Friday evening Gazprom announced that deliveries via Nord Stream 1 were not possible due to an oil leak in a turbine. The group did not provide any information on the duration of the delivery stop.
Overall, the gas supply situation is tense, according to the Federal Network Agency's current gas supply management report. A further deterioration of the situation cannot be ruled out. "But the gas supply in Germany is stable at the moment. The security of supply in Germany is currently guaranteed."
Current figures from European gas storage operators for the whole of Europe for last Thursday show a similar picture to that in Germany: around 910 gigawatt hours were fed in that day, and 324 were withdrawn. The bottom line is that 586 gigawatt hours of gas were stored.
Germany now receives by far the most natural gas from Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium. According to the Federal Network Agency, around 2,900 gigawatt hours of natural gas flowed from these countries to Germany on Thursday. For comparison: On Monday, before the announced supply reduction, Nord Stream 1 transported around 348 gigawatt hours of Russian natural gas.
"I assume that storage can be maintained at this level, so that the 85 percent target will be reached in a few days," Bleschke continued. "If the complete failure of Russian gas transport continues into November, it will take a lot of effort to reach the 95 percent target." According to a new regulation, the storage facilities in Germany should be at least 95 percent full by November 1st. 85 percent is the target for October 1st.
The federal government wants to use various measures to ensure that the gas storage facilities in Germany are almost full at the beginning of the heating period. Germany should thus be better armed against a total failure of Russian deliveries in winter. The amount of gas stored at a level of 95 percent corresponds approximately to the nationwide consumption of the two months of January and February 2022. "The use of gas as a weapon will not change the determination of the EU," wrote EU Council President Charles Michel on Twitter. "We will accelerate our path to energy independence."
