Germany Requires Gas Use Reduction Next Winter: Network Agency

German households and businesses will need to cut gas use to avoid an energy crunch next winter according to Klaus Müller, head of the Federal Network Agency.

• “The danger of a gas shortage is still there,” he told the Financial Times. “It depends a lot on whether we continue to curb gas use and ensure diversified supplies into Germany. And there are risks.”
• The winter of 2023/24 will be the first Germany has experienced without Russian pipeline gas.
• Germany has sourced new LNG supply from the Middle East and US, as well as increased imports of pipeline gas from Norway, Holland, Belgium and France, and built its first LNG import terminals on the northern coast.
• Germany’s gas tanks are now 64 per cent full, a much higher level than a year ago.
• Industry used about 20% less gas than usual this winter, through methods such as fuel switching and cutting back production.
• Germany acknowledges that next winter may not be mild like this year, making the gas cuts much harder to0 achieve.