Germany reduces its gas security alert as supply bottlenecks ease

Katherina Reiche, Germany's Economy Minister, said that the German government had lowered its gas supply security grade to an early warning level from alarm as supply bottlenecks have eased.

Berlin declared alert in June 2022 after Russia's invasion.

Invasion of Ukraine

There was a sudden decrease in the imports of gas from Moscow. Reiche stated that Germany no longer imported Russian gas via pipelines and that no Russian LNG arrived at its LNG terminals.

She added that Germany's gas supplies were secure and conditions for the alert levels according to the emergency plan did not exist. Reiche said that, given the stability of the situation, the government does not need to fill up the gas storage facilities in Germany through its trading hub.

The government will continue to monitor the situation closely by using the early warning level. This is the first of the three crisis levels.

At a Berlin news conference, Reiche said that the market was still able cope with the disruption or demand.

She said that while Germany's gas levels are about 50% lower than in previous years, storage activity has increased dramatically. Gas prices are stabilizing at 34 euros per megawatt-hour, but they're still double what they were before the Ukraine war triggered the energy crisis. (Reporting and editing by Matthias Williams, Mark Heinrich and Riham Alkousaa)

(source: Reuters)