Bavaria's gas and oil bill twice as high - head of association: "serious burden"

Created: 08/13/2022, 06:45

By: Lisa Mayerhofer

Bavaria imported gas and oil worth 10.9 billion euros in the first half of the year, doubling its bill.

This is due to the increased prices.

Munich – The gas and oil bill for Bavaria's citizens and companies has more than doubled so far this year.

In the first half of the year, natural gas and oil worth 10.9 billion euros were imported, an increase of 106 percent year-on-year.

This was announced by the State Statistical Office in Fürth on Friday.

High energy costs are a major burden for Bavaria's economy

The rise in prices for many products means that Bavaria's foreign trade deficit is increasing.

The total value of imports rose by 18 percent to 121.5 billion euros in the first half of the year.

The value of exports, on the other hand, increased by only nine percent to just under 102 billion euros.

"Responsible for the increases in exports and imports are solely the increased prices," said Bertram Brossardt, General Manager of the Association of Bavarian Business.

"The persistently high energy costs are a serious burden for the Bavarian export economy."

Bavaria has changed from an export to an import country since 2019.

In 2021, Bavaria's companies had sold cars, machines and other goods worth 190 billion euros abroad, but imports were worth 212 billion euros.

Aiwanger calls for subsidies for switching from gas to oil

In addition, Bavaria and its economy are particularly dependent on Russian gas.

Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger (Free Voters) is therefore calling for federal grants for companies that can switch from gas to oil at short notice.

According to Aiwanger's calculations, both gas and money could be saved.

"There are many companies across the country that could switch from gas to other energy sources without much difficulty," Aiwanger said in early August.

However, the companies often do not do this “because they still have cheap old gas contracts”.

Freie Wahler-Chef refers to the fact that breweries and many other companies have installed dual-fuel burners that can burn both gas and heating oil.

Gas is currently being bought on the world market at outrageously high prices to fill the storage facilities for the winter - Aiwanger spoke of two euros per cubic meter for the Austrian storage facility in Haidach.

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The Economics Minister therefore advocated that the federal government compensate companies with flexible energy supplies for the difference between their cheap gas price and the higher oil price, so that they can switch over without financial losses.

"So the federal government is using more tax money than necessary and the gas price is being pushed up more than necessary," criticized Aiwanger.