Germany imports 8 percent of its gas as LNG, fanning concerns over effects on storage levels

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals covered 8 percent of Germany’s total gas imports in the first half of the year, a level similar to the past year. Energy industry represenatives have voiced concerns that a rising share of LNG could lead to low gas storage levels due to a lack of incentives for storage operators, according to media reports.

The country’s LNG terminals fed 39.3 terawatt-hours (TWh) of gas into the grid, compared to total gas imports of 490.6 TWh, according to data from the grid agency BNetzA, reported newspaper Die Welt. The Baltic Sea terminal on the island of Rügen emerged as the country’s top LNG feed-in point from April to June. It handled 10.2 TWh of LNG during that period, overtaking North Sea terminals at Wilhelmshaven and Brunsbüttel, which faced capacity limits due to maintenance.

Germany's shift to LNG imports is raising concerns about the relatively low levels across the country’s gas storage facilities, reports Süddeutsche Zeitung. National storage facilities are just 52 percent full — well below last year’s levels at the same time. Gas storage levels are legally required to reach 80 percent by October to prepare for winter.

The storage in Rehden in Lower Saxony, Germany’s largest facility with a total capacity for almost four billion cubic metres of gas, is only 2.4 percent filled. Storage levels in Rehden were also low at the outbreak of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which caused energy prices to skyrocket across Germany and Europe. The LNG import terminals at the North Sea and the Baltic Sea were built in an expedited procedure in response to the war to make the country independent of Russian pipeline gas. 

Stefan Dohler, the CEO of Oldenburg-based energy company EWE, warned that market conditions — particularly the volatile pricing associated with LNG imports — are discouraging gas storage, reported Süddeutsche Zeitung. With the traditional “summer-winter spread” disappearing, operators find little incentive to store gas now for winter use, Dohler said. “There is a real risk that storage facilities will not be sufficiently filled before the coming winter,” he warned.

The government lowered the country’s gas supply alert to the lowest level only last week. Economics minister Katherina Reiche from chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives (CDU) said she was not concerned about storage levels, saying “we are seeing a very stable gas market today” having “succeeded in overcoming the gas crisis caused by Russia's war of aggression.”