Status: 03/30/2023 10:15 a.m
The heating season will soon be over – and the gas storage tanks can fill up again. Netzagentur boss Müller is optimistic that the filling level will also be high before the next cold season begins.
Federal Network Agency President Klaus Müller expects well-filled natural gas storage facilities before the start of the next heating season. “We are now coming out of the winter with relatively full storage facilities. This will help fill the storage facilities over the summer without Russian pipeline gas,” Müller told the German Press Agency. Russia stopped supplying natural gas to Germany at the end of August 2022.
The current heating season is slowly coming to an end. For the gas storage operators, the so-called storage year ends at the end of March. Last winter, the storage tanks were full to the brim during the heating period: on the morning of November 14, 2022, a total filling level of 100 percent was recorded.
Level at a good 64 percent
The storage facilities compensate for fluctuations in gas consumption and thus form a buffer system for the market. In winter, the fill levels usually decrease. This morning the total fill level was 64.2 percent. That was 0.2 percentage points less than the previous day, according to preliminary data from the European gas storage association GIE. The lowest fill level of the current year so far was recorded on March 17 at 63.67 percent. For comparison: A year earlier on March 17, 2022, the German storage facilities were only 24.56 percent full.
Winter is over for the operators of German gas storage facilities. “Against the background of rising temperatures, we can now regard the winter as over,” said the managing director of the gas storage association Ines, Sebastian Bleschke, last week. In the coming days and weeks, colder temperatures could lead to withdrawals. “But we will certainly increasingly go into the storage phase.”
In addition to withdrawal from storage, gas continues to flow permanently through pipeline imports and deliveries of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Germany. According to the Federal Network Agency, Germany receives natural gas from Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium and via new LNG terminals on the German coasts. Three special ships are now in use there, which bring the deep-frozen, liquefied natural gas back into a gaseous state and then feed it into the transmission network.
“Continue to use gas sparingly”
Federal Network Agency boss Müller nevertheless warned: “We will also need full storage for next winter. If next winter gets significantly colder, we will also need significantly more gas.” He describes the filling of the storage tank last year as a “great success”. “Full storage tanks, mild temperatures and savings made a significant contribution to the fact that we got through last winter well.”
Müller continued to urge thrift. “We also have to prepare well for next winter. This includes continuing to use gas sparingly.” If, in addition, the gas deliveries continue, the planned further LNG terminals go into operation and it doesn’t get too cold, “we can also get through next winter well”.