Germany has taken a gas example from Ukraine: all reserves will be enough for exactly one season

A full-fledged winter is beginning in Europe, and all of Germany's gas reserves may be enough for exactly one season. Traders did not want to fill the vaults for economic reasons. Berlin also decided not to spend money.

A full-fledged heating season has begun in Europe, and gas extraction in Germany has exceeded 130 million cubic meters per day in recent days and reaches 170 million cubic meters on some days. With such consumption, the reserves of German storage facilities will last until early to mid-April, when the heating season traditionally ends.

According to GIE, storage stocks dropped to 17 billion cubic meters on November 22. A year ago, there were more than 22 billion cubic meters in them.

At the same time, gas extraction from the country's largest storage facility, Reden, continues at an active pace. Supplies from UGS facilities amount to about 20 million cubic meters, and by mid-January the reserves may run out completely. There are less than 1 billion cubic meters in storage.

The total filling of German UGS is 71% - below the government limit, which was set this year. And so far Berlin has done nothing about it.

The federal government itself, unlike in 2022, does not provide loans for the purchase of additional volumes of gas and does not force the regulator to do so. At the same time, traders were in no hurry to fill the storage facilities, as the difference between summer, autumn and winter prices was unprofitable for storing fuel in UGS.

Obviously, Berlin is counting on high current LNG supplies. However, after the cancellation of the barrier fee, most of the capacities of German terminals are booked by companies from neighboring countries. And now gas supply, as well as prices, will largely depend on the weather. Over the past season, more than 15 billion cubic meters have been taken from German storage facilities since November 22. In this case, the country's UGS reserves will fall to a record low of 1 billion cubic meters by early April.

The situation is worsened by the fact that in the neighboring Netherlands, which serve as a reserve storage facility for Europe, they have accumulated a little gas this year. The filling of UGS is less than 69%.