Germany’s natural gas storages are now more than 80% full, making steady progress despite a sharp drop in deliveries from Russia amid the war in Ukraine, according to marketwatch.com.
Natural gas storage in Europe’s biggest economy has reached 80.14% of capacity, according to data released on Tuesday. The head of Germany’s grid regulator, Klaus Mueller, tweeted that warehouses were “firmly filling” but warned that a planned three-day disruption of deliveries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline from Russia next week “could temporarily weaken ” effort.
Natural gas is used to power industry, heat homes and offices, and generate electricity. Increasing stockpiles has been a key goal of the German government since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to avoid releases to the industry as demand rises in winter.
The country’s warehouses were about 56 percent full when Russian state energy company Gazprom began cutting supplies through Nord Stream 1 in mid-June, citing technical problems that German authorities dismissed as an excuse for a political power play.
In recent weeks, Nord Stream 1 has been operating at only 20% of its capacity. Gazprom announced on Friday that the pipeline would be shut down from August 31 to September 2 for what it said was “scheduled maintenance”.
Germany is one of several European countries hit by cuts in Russian gas supplies since the start of the war. Dwindling supplies, fears of further cuts and strong demand have pushed natural gas prices to record highs this month, fueling inflation and raising the prospect of a recession in Europe.
A month ago, the German government tightened storage requirements. It introduced a requirement that warehouses be 75% full by September 1 – a target that has already been exceeded – and raised the targets for October and November to 85% and 95%, respectively, from 80% and 90%.
Source: Capital
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