Germany sees full gas reservoirs for coming winter

Germany's gas reservoirs are likely to be full going into next winter, Klaus Müller, the head of the Federal Network Agency that regulates the country's energy grids, said on Thursday, reported dpa.

"We are now coming out of the winter with relatively full reservoirs, and that will help to fill the reservoirs over the summer," he told dpa at the end of the agency's accounting period, which runs to March 31.

In normal years, more gas is put into the reservoirs from April than taken out. The reservoirs serve as a buffer system to smooth fluctuations in supply and demand. They were 100% full on November 14 last year.

Russia, the main supplier of natural gas to Germany in recent years, halted deliveries in August 2022.

Full reservoirs were needed for the coming winter, Müller said, pointing to a relatively mild past winter as contributing to the ease with which Germany came through the cold months.

Germany's gas reservoirs were at a level of 64.2% of capacity on Wednesday. The lowest level recorded this year was 63.67% on March 17. A year earlier, the level was just 24.56%.

The European Union as a whole recorded a level of 55.7% on Wednesday.

Germans have cut their gas consumption. Over the past week, gas consumption came in at 33.5% below the average between 2018 and 2021, helped by the fact that the average temperature was 5.2 degrees warmer than the average for those years.

Industry used 30% less and households and commerce 38% less.