German imports of natural gas fell by 17.9% in 2023. Energy risks up to 2026
Natural gas imports to Germany fell 17.9 percent between January and August compared to the same period last year, the BDEW , the German utility industry association, said on Thursday.
Total gas demand in Germany has dropped so far this year due to energy saving demands and high prices.
Germany has turned to importing more gas from Norway and the Netherlands, as well as LNG through newly opened LNG import terminals, to make up for a shortage of Russian gas that the country hasn't received for a year since beginning of September.
In May 2022, Russia accounted for 37 percent of Germany's gas consumption, before declining to zero in early September 2022, BDEW said.
At the time, Nord Stream's flows had been shut down by Gazprom, weeks before the still unexplained sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea at the end of September.
Substitution for Russian gas was and is a huge challenge for the energy industry, the BDEW said this week.
"Today, one year later, Germany can be reasonably optimistic about the gas supply situation for next winter," the association added.
Gas storage tanks in Germany are currently 93% full, Kerstin Andreae, director general of the BDEW, said in a statement.
“This gives us security, but it's not a guarantee that we will get through the winter well. We are not out of danger yet”, added Andreae, inviting us to save energy in the coming months as well.
Germany expects natural gas prices to remain high until at least 2027, the government said earlier this month in a report on measures to mitigate high energy costs for households.
A week earlier, INES, the group of German gas storage operators, said in its August gas update that Germany will continue to be at risk of natural gas shortages until the 2026/2027 winter season, unless that it does not take steps to add LNG terminals, additional gas storage capacity or pipelines .
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The article German natural gas imports fell by 17.9% in 2023. Energy risks up to 2026 comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/le-importazioni-tedesche-di-gas-naturale-sono-calate-del-179-nel-2023-rischi-energetici-sino-al-2026/ on Fri, 01 Sep 2023 19:44:05 +0000.