The German Ministry of Economy has declared the second of three phases of an energy emergency, warning that the country faces a high risk of long-term supply shortages due to the systematic suspension of gas supplies from Russia.
One of the “alarm phases” of the contingency plan allows utility companies to pass on high gas prices to customers, thus helping to reduce demand.
The ministry said the reason for the warning was a reduction in Russian gas supplies from June 14 amid continuing high gas prices. If Russian gas supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline remain at a low of 40%, the ministry said in a statement, “a 90% storage target by December cannot be achieved without additional measures”.
“There is no point in pretending – restricting gas supplies is an economic attack on us by Putin,” said Robert Habeck, the economy and energy minister. “Putin’s strategy is frankly to create uncertainty, raise prices and drive a wedge into our society.
“Even if we still don’t feel that way, we are in a gas crisis,” he added. “From now on, gas will be a scarce commodity.”
The Green Party politician said the current crisis was also the result of previous German governments allowing themselves to become too dependent on Russian gas and not diversifying their energy sources enough.
“This is now coming back to haunt us and needs to be corrected at a rapid pace,” Habek told a news conference on Thursday morning.
Germany is vying to fill its gas storage facilities in time for the winter as Europe’s largest economy tries to abandon Russia’s energy supplies in the face of a possible European embargo or a potential decision by Moscow to cut off supplies altogether.
In a move contested by the Green Party’s polling station, the German government plans to build two new liquefied natural gas terminals on the North Sea coast and restart some coal-fired power plants that were to be shut down.
On June 14, Gazprom announced that it was reducing supplies on the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline by 40%, citing delayed repairs to technical parts of the German company Siemens. Habek said on Thursday that the technical reasons were “just a pretext”.
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The economy minister brought together German industry leaders around his emergency plans on Tuesday, warning them that large companies could face gas shortages not only for days but also for months to come next winter.
“If the plan works, the warehouses will be full in the winter,” he told a meeting of German companies DAX in Berlin. “There is some hope that we can handle this. But make no mistake, we are not there yet, the units are only 60%. “
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