Gas shortage in Germany: Bavaria's companies would suffer first
Created: 07/20/2022, 17:19
By: Lisa Mayerhofer
Markus Söder, (CSU) Prime Minister of Bavaria, visits the Wolfersberg gas storage facility.
His state is heavily dependent on Russian gas.
(Archive image) © Peter Kneffel/dpa
A gas shortage in Germany would hit Bavaria's economy particularly hard.
Associations and Bavarian politicians warn of regional disadvantages.
Munich – Routine maintenance on the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline is coming to an end.
In this context, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he intends to continue supplying gas to Germany, but much less than before.
This threatens to slide Germany into a severe energy crisis.
Should a gas shortage then arise, the Federal Network Agency can declare the emergency level in the gas emergency plan.
Private households and hospitals will then continue to be supplied with gas, but not all companies.
According to a report in the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
, it can also depend on where the company is based.
This is due to the fact that the gas cannot be transported in the same quantities from everywhere in the nationwide pipeline network.
In the event of a gas shortage: the south and south-east of Germany are the first to suffer
Christian Kullmann, President of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), also warns of this.
In the event of a gas shortage, companies in southern and southeastern Germany would suffer first because of the pipeline system, Kullmann warns, according to the German Press Agency.
In the north and west, on the other hand, supply via ports is easier.
His industry is one of the largest gas consumers.
It needs the gas as a source of energy and as a raw material for further processing in products such as plastics, medicines or fertilizers.
The association repeated its warning to
the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung : Because the gas network is designed to spread from east to west, the gas shortage would first occur in the network areas in the east and south of Germany.
In addition, the south does not have enough storage, according to the VCI expert Jörg Rothermel to the newspaper: "As great as the solidarity of the companies in North Rhine-Westphalia or Lower Saxony is, it is reaching its limits simply because of the technology."
Things are getting tight, especially for Bavaria's economy: The Free State has an energy-intensive industry and is dependent on gas supplies from Russia to an above-average extent.
At the same time, the gas storage facilities are 57 percent less well filled than the national average, explains Bertram Brossardt, general manager of the Bavarian Business Association, to the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
.
The Austrian gas storage facility in Haidach, which plays an important role for Bavaria, is only 20 percent full.
Brossardt described the gas supply to the newspaper as "very tense".
Söder: "Regional gas shutdowns are unconstitutional"
The CSU therefore calls for a nationwide strategy for prioritizing gas users in the event of a gas shortage in Germany.
"In my view, regional gas shutdowns are largely unconstitutional because they call into question the principle of mutual loyalty between the federal and state governments," emphasized party leader Markus Söder.
On the part of the federal government, he expects more commitment to the many questions about the energy crisis.
Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (free voters) is also urging more haste in the fight against an imminent shortage of electricity and gas in the coming winter months.
He vehemently advocated the continuation of nuclear power.
The federal government is three months behind current developments in energy security, Aiwanger said.
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Gas thriller: Russia is delivering again - but Putin is probably limiting the quantity to a critical value
Greens on CSU: "No own initiatives, only blame and complaints"
The Greens, for their part, called on Aiwanger to finally take action.
"If Hubert Aiwanger and his coalition partner had tackled the energy transition as vigorously as they sing long lamentations today, Bavaria would have half as many worries in terms of energy supply," said Martin Stümpfig, energy policy spokesman for the Greens in the state parliament.
The state government is dwarfing itself: "No initiatives of its own, only blame and complaints," said Stümpfig.
It was the state government that not only blocked power lines and wind power for many years, but also until recently called for the construction of 4,000 megawatt gas-fired power plants.
In contrast, the Federal Network Agency, which would control the supply in the event of a gas shortage, sees no disadvantage for the south.
Regional aspects are not decisive in an emergency - it will be about minimizing the overall consequences of the shortage, said a spokeswoman for the
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
.
"In the event of a long-lasting Russian supply freeze, the gas supply in all federal states will be affected."
(lma/dpa)
