OR Germany examines whether it should create a strategic warehouse gasa smaller version of the American Emergency Reserve Emergency, according to sources cited by Bloomberg.
The German Ministry of Finance has commissioned experts to examine the feasibility of state gas storage, said sources, who could not be named as the issue is confidential. Most gas storage venues are filled with private companies, which buy fuel in the summer and pay for its storage until winter, when they hope to sell it again with a profit.
A government spokesman said the ministry is calling for a broad study of the gas market and that strategic storage is just one aspect in the context.
Germany has some of the largest storage spaces in Europe And he is currently struggling to replenish the stocks, with the caves being unusually licensed due to the poor financial situation, which has led to a recent movement of relaxation of filling requirements.
The lack of activity has pushed exploitation bodies, such as Uniper SE, threatening to close areas that do not make profits. Germany needs natural gas for sections of its economy industry, which is why officials are considering government reserves.
US Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the largest stock of crude emergency in the worldwhich makes it an important deterrent factor in stopping oil imports and a key tool in foreign policy, according to the website of the Ministry of Energy.
Some EU members, including Italy and Austria, already have state -controlled gas strategic reserves, which are not freely available for use by the rest of the market. State reserves cover about 11% of the total storage capacity of the block on average, according to the European Network of Natural Gas Systems Managers.
The issue is especially important for the southern part of the country, where the demand for gas from industry is high. While the government recently reduced the gas storage targets to reduce prices pressure in storage, it maintained higher filling requirements for four facilities near the Swiss and Austrian border.
A location that was briefly discussed as a strategic resource for Germany, but is now considered less appropriate, is Rehden, according to sources, and is one of the largest in Europe. Other options, such as cave storage, are easier to fill and more economical, one of the people said. The gas that is maintained in the short term at the country’s terminal stations to import liquefied natural gas (LNG) could also be used as a strategic reserve, they said themselves.
Germany has created a capacity during the energy crisis to replace Russian gas by pipelines and today there are three terminals.