German gas caverns not far off winter targets at 79% full, Trading Hub Europe says

A worker walks past a gas tube that connects the 'Hoegh Esperanza' Floating Storage and Regasification Unit (FSRU) with main land during the opening of the LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) terminal in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, December 17, 2022. Michael Sohn/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

By Vera Eckert

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's natural gas caverns, at just over 79% capacity, are not far off legally-required filling levels for the coming 2024/25 winter, an industry executive said.

"The underground inventories are currently well filled," said Torsten Frank, the head of Trading Hub Europe (THE), which coordinates a quarter of storage capacity under a government remit, sending calming price signals to wholesale markets. [NG/EU]

Germany's storage facilities, with a capacity of 23 billion cubic metres (bcm), were 79.04% full on Monday, industry data showed.

THE, owned by pipeline transport companies, was commissioned by the Berlin government in 2022, when Germany and much of Europe was mostly cut off from Russian gas, to create a state buffer of emergency volumes of up to 50 terawatt hours (TWh), to complement private companies' activities.

The company successively sold off all volumes by mid-May 2024 but will continue to buy and release gas to the market up to 2027 if necessary to ensure compliance with legally required minimum storage levels, he said.

The levels are not far off compliance, with a required 85% and 95% by Oct. 1 and Nov. 1, respectively.

"If those targets are reached, THE does not need to take any action," Frank, one of four managing directors of the Ratingen-based firm, said in an interview with Reuters on Tuesday and published on Wednesday.

If the transit of Russian pipeline gas via Ukraine into Austria stops from next January, Frank said he believed the European market could supplement volume losses with pipeline gas or liquefied natural gas (LNG) from other regions into North Europe or the Mediterranean.

"There is sufficient LNG terminal capacity, and the corresponding transport capacities running south from northwest Europe have been upgraded," he said.

Ukraine has said it will not extend a five-year deal with Russia's Gazprom on the transit of Russian gas to Europe when it expires at the end of the year.

The European Union has also adopted a package of sanctions on Moscow that aim to reduce Russia's revenue from LNG exports by banning trans-shipments off EU ports which have continued while most pipeline gas supply has dried up.

"There are many LNG suppliers so that sufficient volumes could be transported to Europe even in case of a potential import ban on Russian LNG imports," he said.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert; Editing by Madeline Chambers, Miranda Murray and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)