German Gas Reserves Reach Key 70% Threshold, Easing Winter Risks
(Bloomberg) -- Germany has filled its gas reserves to a critical storage level two months ahead of schedule, easing fears about winter heating shortages that only recently fueled talk of potential government intervention.
As of Friday, Germany’s gas storage sites were 70% full — a threshold the government aimed to reach by Nov. 1. Earlier this year, slow injections rattled Europe’s gas market as traders saw little incentive to stockpile. But falling summer gas prices have since spurred a rapid build-up.
Europe is weeks away from the start of its heating season, and with laggards such as Germany accelerating the pace of injections, it’s now much better prepared than many market participants dared predict just a few months ago. The continent — which stopped receiving large amounts of Russian pipeline flows in 2022 — builds up a fuel buffer each summer to ensure there’s enough gas to get through winter.
While Berlin had signaled it wouldn’t intervene in filling reserves unless absolutely necessary, reaching 70% puts Germany safely within the European Union’s recently revised legal storage requirements. Some of its storage sites — including the largest in Rehden — still haven’t met domestic legal filling targets, but an economy ministry spokesperson said other facilities as well as the nation’s LNG terminals help to ensure supply security.
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