To prevent Uniper from collapsing, Germany’s largest natural gas importer requested an additional €4 billion in credit. Back to coal-fired electricity.
The company has applied to state investment bank KfW to increase its state credit facility by 4 billion euros, Dusseldorf-based Uniper announced yesterday. With the last 2 billion euros it raised, the existing credit limit of 9 billion euros from the state bank was used up. The group, which has an immediate liquidity problem, is not only burdened by the higher purchase prices of natural gas, but also in particular by the guarantees deposited in the energy exchanges.
Help-bridge
Uniper applied for state aid last July and two weeks later the government promised a 15 billion euro rescue package. The credit line from KfW is part of the agreed package. After the drastic restriction of Russian natural gas by Gazprom, the group has to buy gas more expensively on the free market in order to fulfill contractual obligations, resulting in a lack of liquidity. The daily losses due to the increased price of natural gas exceed 100 billion euros per day. The 4 billion is only intended to bridge Uniper’s financial needs until the giant can pass on most of the increased energy costs to its customers from October 1 through the special gas levy of 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour. Of the 34 billion expected to be collected, Uniper will take the lion’s share.
It should be noted that Uniper plays a key role in Germany’s energy supply and supplies over 100 municipal utilities and industrial enterprises with electricity and natural gas. As early as last July, Economy and Energy Minister Robert Hambeck promised that he would not let it collapse. According to the statement, Uniper is working closely with the government “under a high pressure regime” for a permanent solution to the emergency situation it is facing.
Back to using coal
The special natural gas levy has caused so much backlash even within the governing coalition that the responsible minister, Robert Hambeck, has pledged to “fix” it. Indicatively speaking on the morning TV magazine of the first public channel ARD, Lars Klingbeil, co-chairman of the SPD, said that “the special gas levy is a justified measure to prevent insolvency in the energy supply, and that was right. But now we see that companies who are making billions in profits, to apply for financing… You can’t make billions in profits and want to get billions in taxpayers’ money as well.”
Chancellor Olaf Solz (SPD) emphasized that he wants the special fee for natural gas customers to be implemented. “From the chancellor’s point of view, this tool for securing gas supplies in Germany is beyond question,” deputy government spokeswoman Christiane Hoffmann said at midday. As he pointed out, it is “the right means to stabilize systemically important natural gas suppliers. The point now is to find ‘legally safe clarifications’ so that companies that don’t need help don’t benefit as well.” Finally, the energy crisis is bringing fossil fuel power plants back to the fore. Germany’s largest coal-fired power station, Heyden 4, located in North Rhine-Westphalia, was commissioned early yesterday morning. In this way, additional natural gas is saved.
Irini Anastasopoulou / Tagesschau / afp /dpa
Source: Deutsche Welle
Source: Capital
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