Germany's main storage facility was left without gas: not a cubic meter in five weeks

Five weeks have passed since the start of the gas injection season in Germany, but the largest storage facility remains empty. It is managed by SEFE, nationalized in 2022, which previously belonged to Gazprom under the name Gazprom Germania.

As EADaily reported, Europe is in a hurry to replenish its depleted gas reserves over the winter and has reached a record injection of 475 million cubic meters per day over the past two and a half years. German companies are also increasing their reserves and went out in May to replenish stocks of more than 100 million cubic meters per day. During the five weeks of April and early May, gas volumes in the country's underground storage facilities increased by 1.27 billion cubic meters — the highest level since the beginning of the energy crisis. VNG, Uniper and RWE are actively being uploaded.

This situation is explained by the fact that current reserves are still much lower than last year's - almost twice, 8.12 billion cubic meters.

At the same time, the largest storage facility in Germany and throughout Europe, Reden, with a capacity of more than 4 billion cubic meters, is still empty. For the first time in many years, not a single cubic meter of gas was supplied to the UGS in five weeks. According to GIE, its occupancy rate dropped to 3%. On May 4, there were only 140 million cubic meters in Reden.

Until the spring of 2022, the storage operator Astora, which was part of Gazprom Germania, belonged to Gazprom. But Berlin nationalized Gazprom Germania, renaming it SEFE. The company continues to be a major gas importer and receives, among other things, Russian LNG under the inherited contract with Yamal LNG. However, cheaper pipeline Russian gas is no longer available, which is the reason for the uncertainty faced by the German company.

On the one hand, it is forced to focus on current market prices, which this year are higher than last year's, while the difference between summer and winter quotes is low. This can make the current download unprofitable. On the other hand, SEFE is owned by the state and EU rules require that by November 1, the storage facilities be at least 90% full. However, in the very EU limits are planned to be eased up to 83% by December 1. And in Germany went even further. Since Tuesday, the country has already begun to operate rules according to which UGS must be filled on average by at least 70% by November 1.

The governments of the EU countries, including Germany, are faced with the fact that their companies need to purchase additional billions of cubic meters of gas this year. At the same time, there is a rush when new LNG projects in the USA, Africa and Canada can not meet the growth in demand, may lead to a new jump in prices, which are still more than twice as high as pre-crisis.

In this situation, it is possible to reduce the limits, but the need for additional gas will not disappear, unless the German authorities expect that the next winter will be warmer, or the entire deficit will be covered by higher imports in winter. By the last heating season, the occupancy rate of Reden exceeded 98%, and in early May it fell to 3%.

SEFE itself announced that on May 7 it will hold an auction for booking the capacities of Reden.

"Due to the recently adjusted filling level requirements, the Reden gas storage facility now provides greater flexibility. In accordance with the new requirements for the filling level, a minimum filling level of 45% has been in effect at the UGS since November 1," SEFE reports.