Gas crisis: is Germany supplying storage facilities abroad despite the gas shortage?
Created: 07/31/2022, 16:19
By: Astrid Theil
The Baltic gas pipeline Nord Stream 1 in Lubmin.
© Stefan Sauer/dpa
The gas crisis is causing many fears about the coming winter.
Accordingly, news about gas deliveries abroad spread quickly.
Berlin - The dependence on gas supplies from Russia is currently presenting Germany with a difficult situation.
Winter is coming and Russia has massively reduced its gas supplies.
Therefore, alternative energy sources are being sought at high pressure and the existing amount of gas is being rationed.
At the beginning of July, the information circulating on social media that German gas would be forwarded to Poland was all the more critical.
The gas storage facilities in Poland are currently about 98 percent full.
This is based on data from the AGSI platform.
However, only a fraction of the gas comes from Germany.
Before the Ukraine war, Poland imported most of its natural gas from Russia.
In 2020, an additional 21 percent came from Germany and 14 percent from Qatar.
In addition, Poland produces its own natural gas.
According to the Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment, the gas that is currently in the storage facilities comes from different sources: “From LNG terminals, from our own production and from purchases that we make on the European gas market – including purchases from Germany. This was
communicated to the
Correctiv research center.
Gas can be traded freely - "The global markets are mostly anonymous"
Poland receives a large part of the gas from the Świnoujście LNG terminal east of the island of Usedom.
There, Poland primarily receives supplies from Qatar, the USA and from the spot market, an international market where crude oil and gas are auctioned.
Germany, in turn, receives its gas from Russia via the Yamal pipeline, which leads to Germany via Poland.
However, this gas does not necessarily belong to Germany.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics told
ZDFheute
how the European gas network works: "The gas can be used by Polish, Italian or companies from another country, but is transported via the pipeline."
Gas can be traded freely and thus be forwarded or returned from one country to another.
Accordingly, Poland can also buy gas from Germany.
However, detailed information about the purchases cannot be viewed.
“Exactly who buys what gas quantities where and to whom is difficult to understand from the outside.
The global markets are mostly anonymous," said Tobias Federico, managing director of the consulting agency "Energy Brainpool" to
ZDFheute
.
Banning German companies from selling gas to Poland is illegal, stresses Federico.
These are private sales.
Germany has the largest gas storage facilities in Central and Western Europe
In Germany, gas storage facilities are currently about 67 percent full on average.
These figures come from the AGSI database of the interest group Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE).
A year ago, the gas level was even lower: at 46 percent.
The majority of German gas storage facilities are currently around 80 to 90 percent full.
Germany currently has four times as much gas as Poland, as it has the largest storage facilities for natural gas in Central and Western Europe.
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