Germany gas storage winter preparations have fallen well short of target, with reserves at only about 61 percent as the heating season begins, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data. Facilities were 61.35 percent full on October 30, and 61.17 percent full on Friday, October 31, well below the roughly 70 percent average level implied by Germany’s November 1 targets and far below the 80 percent headline target for most sites.
The shortfall comes as a cold snap is forecast to sweep across Germany and much of Europe in the coming days, potentially boosting demand for gas for heating. Average temperatures in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich are expected to slide 2 to 4 degrees Celsius below normal, according to Vaisala meteorologist Matthew Dross, cited in Bloomberg’s reporting. Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is particularly exposed because of its energy-intensive manufacturing sector, and its buffers now trail the European Union average of about 75 percent.
Government insists supply is secure
Despite the miss, the German government has insisted there will be no immediate supply bottleneck. “Germany’s gas supply is secure for the coming winter, even with the current storage levels,” a spokeswoman for Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said, according to DPA. She added that security of supply depends not only on storage levels, but also on actual withdrawals, ongoing imports and additional precautionary measures. The Federal Network Agency said the same, stating that security of supply is guaranteed and that it continues to consider the risk of a stressed gas supply to be low.
Officials point to liquefied natural gas infrastructure and continuous pipeline imports as backstops, and the state company SEFE has been ordered to buy extra gas and run special procurements to shore up stocks over the past month. Even so, the fact that state purchases were needed at all underlines how high summer wholesale prices cut commercial refilling and left the market unwilling to fill caverns at prevailing prices.
Industry demands a rethink
The gas storage industry association INES has urged the government to reconsider how reserves are maintained. Its managing director, Sebastian Heinermann, said the failure to meet storage targets shows that storage levels for coming winters must be guaranteed more rigorously, and INES has prepared a report alongside gas network operators to support discussions about regulatory change. One option under discussion is replacing legal fill targets with a national reserve to be built from 2027, holding about 24 billion kilowatt-hours and financed by a consumer levy.
Italy, which filled its stores to about 91 percent after early state intervention, has publicly blamed German buying for raising European wholesale prices, according to Particle News’ summary of government reports. For German households, the practical question is price rather than physical shortage: European natural gas prices have traded above 100 euros per megawatt-hour on winter supply fears, and analysts warn that a prolonged cold spell could keep that pressure in place through the winter months.
