The state-mandated requirement to refill gas storage facilities to 70 percent by early November is now barely achievable, according to assessments from the energy industry. ‘At some point it is no longer physically possible,’ Kerstin Andreae, chair of the executive management of power industry lobby group BDEW, said on Friday on Deutschlandfunk. Despite high gas purchase prices, injections would continue, but only slowly. For now, the target for storage levels is still within reach. ‘But it is getting tighter and tighter.’

Gas storage facilities in Germany are currently only about 50 percent full. At the same time last year, they stood at 67 percent. Normally, gas traders can buy cheaply in summer and fill storage that way. This year, however, that has not been possible because the war in the Middle East has pushed energy prices higher. As a result, many companies are hesitating.

‘Right now this mechanism is not working,’ Andreae said. ‘Companies act economically.’ The state could make it more attractive for them by adjusting taxes, fees or levies. The federal government had leaned early on a market-based solution. Andreae also suggested that it could be more economical for companies to accept a penalty than to buy gas for storage at current prices. This can be incurred when gas traders commit to storage capacity but then fail to deliver. The major gas traders Uniper and Sefe are state-owned, however, which gives the government leverage here.

The BDEW expert also warned against sweeping interventions by the German state in the market, as happened in 2022 after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. That had led to higher prices, which is why the tool should be used with caution. Unlike the crisis situation in 2022, there is now better infrastructure to import liquefied natural gas (LNG).

The federal government currently sees no threat to security of supply this winter. The CDU-led Economy Ministry says it is preparing so it can respond if necessary. In the EU, storage facilities are 62 percent full, more than in Germany, but also significantly less than a year ago.

(Reporting by Christian Krämer, edited by Kerstin Dörr. For questions, contact our editorial team at berlin.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for politics and macroeconomics) or frankfurt.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (for companies and markets).)