The head of Germany's Federal Grid Agency (regulator) Klaus Müller, despite well-filled gas storages in the country (93.4%), called for vigilance and saving gas consumption before the winter heating period.
"The German government is still on high alert. "It is still important to be vigilant," Müller told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper.
He also touched on the conflict in Ukraine, which, according to him, could lead to a worsening of the situation. “The battles are not about the gas infrastructure itself, but the territory around this infrastructure is a zone of hostilities on both sides,” says the head of the network agency. More specifically, in his words, it is about the gas measuring station (GIS) "Suja" in the Kursk region, which is an important distribution point for natural gas exported to Europe.
„In any case, Ukraine has announced that it will not renew expiring contracts for the supply of natural gas to Southeast Europe after the end of the year. It means we know our neighbors here need to be vigilant,” said Mueller.
Earlier, Gazprom official Sergey Kupriyanov said that the events in the Suzha region of the Kursk region have already led to a sharp increase in the prices of natural and liquefied gas and questioned who benefits from this.
Germany is gradually transitioning to renewable energy sources, abandoning coal power plants and closing nuclear power plants. It is planned to achieve complete climate neutrality by 2045. Initially, during the transition period, the emphasis was on Russian energy resources, mainly gas. Germany began to refuse supplies of resources from the Russian Federation after the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine.