EU stocks are currently 81 per cent full, according to Gas Infrastructure Europe data, with Germany's stores at 85 per cent full.
Klaus Mueller, president of the Federal Network Agency energy regulator, said in August that even if Germany's gas stores were 100 per cent full, they would be empty in 2.5 months if Russian gas flows were halted completely.Įurope last week met early a target to fill its gas stocks by 80 per cent by November. "There's plenty of scope to replace that (Russian) gas with LNG imports for now, but when the weather turns cold and demand starts to pick up in the winter in Europe and Asia, there's only so much LNG out there that Europe can import," Mandel said. Germany has begun developing liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals to enable it to receive gas from global suppliers and move away from Russian gas imports.
A move to stage three would see some gas rationing to industry.įollowing Russia's invasion of Ukraine Europe rapidly launched plans to cut its dependence on Russian fuels, switching to alternative suppliers of gas and other fuels and pushing faster deployment of clean energy supplies. Germany, Europe's largest consumer of gas, is at phase two of a three-stage emergency plan to deal with lower supply.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Sunday his country had been preparing for a total halt in gas deliveries from Germany. "Supply is hard to come by, and it becomes harder and harder to replace every bit of gas that doesn't come from Russia," he said. The impact of the latest cut would depend on Europe's ability to attract gas from other sources, Jacob Mandel, senior associate for commodities at Aurora Energy Research, said. Sky-high power costs linked to surging gas prices have already forced some energy-hungry industries, including fertiliser and aluminium makers, to scale back production, and led EU governments to pump billions into schemes to help households. "We expect a significantly stronger open for the TTF on Monday." the market was already pricing in Nord Stream 1 (NS1) flows coming back," Energy Aspects gas analyst Leon Izbicki said. 26's record high to close at just over 200 euros per megawatt hour on Friday.īut after Russia scrapped a Saturday deadline for flows to resume, saying it had discovered a fault during maintenance, prices are likely to surge again, analysts said.
The Nord Stream pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, historically supplied around a third of the gas exported from Russia to Europe, but was already running at just 20 per cent of capacity before flows were halted last week for maintenance.Įxpectations were high Russia's state-controlled energy giant Gazprom would restart flows at 20 per cent after the latest stoppage, leading benchmark Dutch TTF gas prices to fall back around 40 per cent from Aug. Lower gas flows from Russia ahead of and following its February invasion of Ukraine have already pushed up European prices by nearly 400 per cent over the past year, sending electricity costs soaring.Įurope has accused Russia of weaponising energy supplies in what Moscow has called an "economic war" with the West over the fallout from the Ukraine conflict, while Moscow blames Western sanctions and technical issues for supply disruptions. European gas buyers already grappling with record-high prices face further pain when the markets open on Monday after Russia said one of its main supply pipelines to Europe would remain shut indefinitely, sparking fears over energy rationing.
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