“Half-baked, completely unfair”: The first group boss is harsh on the gas surcharge

Created: 08/24/2022, 13:19

By: Patricia Huber

The gas surcharge is meeting growing headwind - also in industry.

All information about the gas crisis in the news ticker.

• The Federal Network Agency is planning

  prioritization in the event of a shortage of gas

  : In industry, the gas should then be distributed according to three criteria.

• Kühnert

  calls for

  "healthy companies" to be exempted from the gas surcharge

  : they should not be allowed to profit from the additional burden on consumers.

• Nord Stream 1

  maintenance "technically incomprehensible"

  : The Federal Network Agency considers the announced maintenance to be unfounded.

• This news ticker on the gas crisis is constantly updated.

Update from August 23, 9.32 a.m .:

The board of directors of the Leverkusen plastics group Covestro, Klaus Schäfer, has sharply criticized the levy decided by the federal government to support gas importers.

“The levy is highly immature and completely unfair.

Costs and benefits are not balanced," Schäfer told the

on Wednesday.

Depending on the further development of energy prices, Schäfer expects high additional costs for his company.

"Competitors will have to subsidize each other later," he criticized.

In addition, some gas importers have already declared that they can waive the surcharge.

"That doesn't speak to the precision of this instrument." As an alternative, the manager suggested a gas tax "that would be spread across the country."

Covestro board member Klaus Schäfer considers the gas surcharge to be “half-baked and completely unfair”.

© Rainer Unkel/Imago Images

Bundesnetzagentur plans prioritization in the event of a gas shortage

Update from August 23, 3:50 p.m .:

In the case of an acute gas shortage in Germany, according to the Federal Network Agency, it will only be a matter of keeping the damage as low as possible.

“In a gas shortage situation, there is no longer a good decision because then there is not enough gas.

We then try to minimize the damage, ”said Netzagentur boss Klaus Müller.

If there were to be a prioritization of gas supply in industry, there would be at least three criteria, Müller explained: avoiding commercial damage, taking supply chains and social impacts into account.

It must be ensured that at least food and medicine are still available.

The agency will then try to make decisions with the least possible damage.

Kühnert: "Exempt healthy companies" from the gas surcharge

Update from August 23, 2:08 p.m .:

SPD Secretary General Kevin Kühnert has asked the Ministry of Economic Affairs to legally exclude economically healthy companies from benefiting from the state gas surcharge.

"If even healthy companies with lavish profits can get money from the gas surcharge, then consumers in Germany are not securing their existence, but the returns of the owners," said Kühnert on Tuesday of the

"This enrichment at the expense of the gas customers must therefore now be legally excluded by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate."

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Instead, it should be anchored that the surcharge only secures the business activities of energy companies threatened with insolvency.

From the SPD's point of view, decency also prohibits a company from collecting a solidarity surcharge and paying a dividend at the same time.

Kevin Kühnert argues against the fact that economically healthy companies benefit from the gas surcharge.

© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa

Nord Stream 1 maintenance "technically incomprehensible"

Update from August 23, 12:00 p.m .:

The Federal Network Agency considers the renewed maintenance of the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline announced by Gazprom to be unfounded.

"Even this maintenance interruption is technically incomprehensible for us," said the President of the network agency, Klaus Müller, on Tuesday after a meeting with the Lower Saxony state government.

He considers all previous arguments that it was because of the turbines from Siemens Energy to be false.

Experience shows that Russia "made a political decision after each so-called maintenance".

"We won't know until the beginning of September whether Russia will do it again," he said.

"Probably only the Russian President knows that at the point."

Gas prices continue to soar

Update from August 23, 11:40 a.m.:

The gas price in Europe continues to soar.

The TTF futures contract, which is trend-setting for European gas trading, had already risen significantly on the energy exchange last week.

In the morning, the price rose by more than 13 percent to almost 276 euros per megawatt hour.

On Tuesday, the price then fell only slightly to just under 272 euros per megawatt hour.

In mid-August 2021, the price for a megawatt hour was still 26 euros, as the comparison portal Check24 reports.

This results in a price increase of around 1,000 percent within one year.

Gas storage level is approaching the next target

Update from August 23, 10:39 a.m .:

The filling level of the German natural gas storage is approaching the 85 percent mark despite the greatly reduced delivery volumes from Russia.

According to data published on the Internet by European gas storage operators on Tuesday, the level on Sunday morning was 80.14 percent.

The fill level is always reported with a delay.

A new regulation stipulates that German storage facilities must be at least 85 percent full by October 1st.

On November 1st it should be at least 95 percent.

The 75 percent required by September 1 had been reached more than two weeks earlier.

Gas surcharge may increase in winter

First report from August 23, 10:37 a.m.:

Berlin – From October, gas customers will have to dig deeper into their pockets.

That is when the gas levy comes into effect, which has to be paid in addition to the already high prices.

The surcharge is intended to benefit suppliers who have to buy replacement gas from Russia for the missing, cheaper gas at high prices.

Trading Hub Europe calculates the amount of the levy as a joint venture between the transmission system operators.

The company had put the levy at 2.4 cents per kilowatt hour last week.

However, according to the company responsible, the amount of the gas levy is likely to change soon.

“The allocation can be adjusted every three months.

Because of the dynamic development, I assume that the levy will have to be adjusted this winter," said Torsten Frank, Managing Director of Trading Hub Europe, to the

.

"The levy can fall when the situation calms down, but it can also rise if, for example, Gazprom should further reduce its deliveries or the forecasts of the companies change."