Depletion of German gas stores slowed due to mild winter
Clean Energy Wire / Tagesspiegel Background
Temperatures this winter have been relatively mild, slowing the depletion of gas stores in Germany, which are nonetheless at a historically low level, said gas storage operators association INES.
Germany started the heating season with levels at 76 percent, which had dropped to 57 percent by the start of 2026 – 23 percentage points below the previous year. A comparably low level was reached during the energy crisis winter of 2021/2022. Currently, levels in Germany are at slightly above 40 percent.
“The mild winter has eased the situation in the short term, but this should not obscure the fact that storage levels were insufficient ahead of the 2025/26 winter,” said Sebastian Heinermann, managing director of INES. “The current mechanisms do not adequately ensure security of supply.”
The federal government had the option of using state instruments to ensure higher fill levels through the Gas Storage Act, but chose not to do so due to concerns about high costs, said INES. However, the association welcomed that the government announced in its coalition agreement that it would “introduce instruments to ensure secure and more cost-effective filling of gas storage facilities.”
Despite the mild winter, experts expect gas storage facilities to continue depleting as the market in Europe is encouraging the sale of natural gas from storage facilities on the basis that prices are higher now than for futures markets for February and March, reported Tagesspiegel Background. However, the situation in Iran and US threats to take over Greenland are also impacting prices as markets are unsettled. “There is a risk that the US could exploit Europe's dependence on US LNG as leverage in the conflict over Greenland,” Sebastian Gulbis, managing director of the consulting firm Enervis, told Tagesspiegel Background.
Norway is Germany’s dominant gas supplier, but Europe’s biggest economy also sources more than 90 percent of its direct LNG from the US, in addition to considerable amounts of US LNG through third countries like France and the Netherlands. The EU as a whole sourced 57 percent of its LNG from the US in 2025.
