German companies starting precautionary measures amid gas supply worries – media

Companies in Germany have started to take precautions for a possible gas shortage in winter, as high prices for the fossil fuel on world markets caused by the war on Iran, as well as low storage filling levels at home are raising concerns about availability and affordability. Business newspaper Handelsblatt said gas grid operator Westnetz had called on customers to provide contact details for better coordination in the event of a supply shortage. 

“A combination of the weather, as well as economic, political and other unforeseeable factors,” could cause “bottlenecks” in gas supply, the subsidiary of energy company E.ON said in an e-mail, according to the newspaper. Chemicals producer Covestro confirmed it is worried about gas supply security in the coming months, while other companies, including chemicals producer BASF, said they had secured most of their gas needs through long-term supply contracts.

Germany had introduced an emergency plan for gas supply following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 but lifted the “gas alert level” in 2025. It reactivated a taskforce to monitor and respond to potential gas shortages after the war in Iran started at the end of February this year. 

Gas prices recently increased to almost 80 euros per megawatt-hour, two and a half times the level before the US-Israeli-led war on Iran started. The war had prompted Iran to impose a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for international fossil fuel shipping. 

While not all companies contacted by the newspaper confirmed they are worried about gas supply, an energy consultant told the newspaper that the return of these warnings is unsettling many companies. Emergency plans stipulate that industrial customers would be cut off first in the event of a gas shortage to ensure continued supply to households and social institutions.

German grid regulator BNetzA said that the low filling levels in storages, which at 53 percent at the beginning of September were at their lowest level in 15 years, did not indicate a shortage. The government has so far rejected intervention, arguing that imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and from other sources are sufficient for ensuring supply.

Despite rising gas prices, energy market experts have said that this does not mean electricity prices rise in parallel. The so-called merit-order principle, under which the cost of power generated by the most expensive technology sets the overall market price, in the past usually would have meant that high costs for natural gas dictated higher power prices. “Since 2022, the German power price has clearly decoupled from the gas price,” Leonhard Gandhi from research institute Fraunhofer ISE told news station ntv. 

More wind and solar power capacity meant that less gas was needed for electricity production, which curbed the price rise significantly, Gandhi said. “If renewables had not contributed as much to electricity production, the wholesale price in April would have been 76 percent higher,” he argued.