The head of the Federal Network Agency (Germany’s regulator), Klaus Müller, said that Germany’s gas storage facilities are currently not full enough to survive the winter without gas supplies from Russia. He expressed this opinion in an interview published on Sunday with the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
“Gas storage facilities are almost 65% full. This is better than in previous weeks, but still not enough to survive the winter without Russian gas,” Muller said. He recalled that maintenance work on the Nord Stream gas pipeline should be completed on Thursday. “Now a lot depends on whether the gas will go through the gas pipeline after that and in what quantity,” the German regulator emphasized.
“There was no significant price hike this week, despite the fact that Nord Stream was closed. This could mean that the markets have already priced in the loss of Russian gas supplies and that we have reached a plateau in gas prices,” Muller explained.
The head of the German regulator urges not to panic because of the current situation with energy supply.
“Private households have the least to worry about. They are provided with gas for the longest time, much longer than, for example, industry. In addition, there is no scenario in which we are completely without gas. Even if Russia stops supplying gas, we will still receive it from Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium, or in the future from German LNG terminals,” Muller said.
“We have an obligation to show solidarity towards our neighbors and we are strongly advised not to harm them. Just as we currently benefit from LPG ports in Belgium and the Netherlands, we also have an obligation to help our neighboring countries supply private households or hospitals in an emergency,” said the head of the Federal Network Agency.
At the same time, Müller believes that the shortage of gas will affect only certain regions of Germany, for example, due to the fact that “they are at the end of the gas network or have a particularly high consumption.”
The head of the German regulator predicts that the country will face the threat of gas shortages for two winters.
“We will probably have to live with the threat of gas shortages for two winters. By the summer of 2024, the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection expects that we will be independent of Russian gas. But it’s also true that prices probably won’t be as low as they used to be,” he concluded.
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