Bonn (energate) - At the end of the meteorological winter on 28 February, German gas storage facilities are still unusually full. 70.71 per cent is currently listed on the transparency platform of the European storage operators AGSI+. A year ago, the figure was 28.61 per cent, more than 40 percentage points less. In particular, the filling level of Germany's largest storage facility, Rehden, was conspicuous at the time with only 3.66 per cent and suggested a strategic emptying by the then owner Gazprom Germania (
energate reported). Currently, the Lower Saxony storage facility, which is under the trusteeship of the Federal Network Agency together with the Sefe subsidiary Astora, is still at over 85 per cent. A 'precaution' for the winter of 2023/24, as the responsible gas market area manager THE put it, who booked a
capacity of 33.4 TWh in Rehden alone.
'Lex Rehden' ensures high filling levels
A few weeks after the start of the war, Berlin had reacted with the 'Law on the Introduction of Level Requirements for Gas Storage Facilities' (Gesetz zur Einführung von Füllstandsvorgaben für Gasspeicheranlagen), also known in industry circles as the 'Lex Rehden'. The Bundestag passed
this on 25 March 2022 with a large majority, only the AFD parliamentary group did not agree at the time and abstained. THE and the German storage operators had been able to meet the 1 October target of 80 per cent and the 1 November target of 90 per cent at high cost. The third target value for 1 February 2023 of 40 per cent was even clearly overfulfilled with over 70 per cent. The Storage Energies Initiative had therefore proposed
individual targets for each storage facility. Only when the market alone would not regulate it and the levels would fall short should the supplementary tenders for gas options by THE take place, was the proposal.
Warm winter is helping - LNG is supply decisive
Germany was helped through the winter of 2022/23 by mild temperatures. As the German Weather Service announced after initial evaluations of its more than 2,000 weather stations, the winter was 2.7 degrees too warm and thus the twelfth too warm winter in a row. How well the gas supply works out in the coming winter depends not only on the weather and the regulatory regime, but also significantly on the availability of LNG in the coming months. Industry experts expect a fierce price war for the scarce commodity, which are also supposed to arrive as abundantly as possible at the new German LNG terminals. In its new report, the International Energy Agency points to China's expected growing thirst for LNG after the end of the corona pandemic. /mt
