Germany says gas reserves filled to 95% sooner than expected

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
14 Oct 2022 17:58

Germany announces that its gas reserves have been filled 95% faster than anticipated as it gets ready for a winter without access to Russian energy sources.

Germany's gas storage is almost 95% full, a month ahead of schedule. (AFP)

In an effort to get ready for a winter without Russian energy supplies, Germany announced on Friday that its gas reserves have been filled up to 95% faster than anticipated.

The biggest economy in Europe was largely reliant on Russian gas and scrambled to increase its supplies before winter after exports from Russia were stopped following the start of the war in Ukraine. "Storage levels today surpassed an average level of 95 percent," the Economy Ministry said in a statement. "That shows that regulation is having an effect and supply is strengthened for the coming winter."

Berlin set a number of objectives in July to ensure that gas stocks would be 95% full by November. Robert Habeck, the Economy Minister, referred to Friday's report as an "important milestone".

He said government measures had managed "to regulate a market that was largely unregulated in the past decades so that we could fill the storage facilities faster than expected despite the halt in deliveries via the Nord Stream 1" pipeline from Russia.

The administration said that recent energy-saving initiatives and sizable gas purchases from other providers had resulted in important advancements.

Berlin has also implemented policies that permit the use of more coal-based energy and lower energy consumption in public structures.

Additionally, it has invested 1.50 billion euros ($1.46 billion) in the purchase of liquefied natural gas from Qatar and the United States, two of its key suppliers. Five new LNG terminals are also being developed for the purpose of importing LNG by sea.