Emphasizing that the situation is “serious”, the Federal Network Agency says that savings must be made for next winter. In Germany, the Federal Network Agency (Bundesnetzagentur), responsible for electricity, natural gas, water, telecommunications, postal and railways, is dealing with restrictions on Russia’s natural gas shipments. He argued that he followed a strategy of raising natural gas prices. The agency made a “serious” assessment of the current state of natural gas supply in Germany.
“Russia has been shipping less natural gas to Germany and Europe for days. They plan to shake us up with this and raise prices,” said Klaus Müller, head of the agency, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection, on Saturday. Müller also stated that the federal government has organized additional liquid gas shipments to Germany for this reason and said, “It is our duty to save natural gas for the winter.”
It is stated that the gas tanks in Germany are currently about 56.7 percent full.
The proposal of the Federal Network Agency to reduce the minimum temperature requirement in rental housing from 20 degrees to 18 degrees, which was found a few days ago, caused controversy. One of the government partners, Free Democratic Party (FDP) Parliamentary Group Chairman Christian Dürr, opposed the ban and said that the government should make great efforts to avoid a shortage of natural gas next winter.
Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas company, has recently reduced its gas shipments via Nord Stream in the Baltic Sea. Gazprom cited some technical repairs as the reason for this. Federal Minister for the Economy and Climate Protection Robert Habeck described it as a “political decision”.
In Germany, which is heavily dependent on Russian gas, the federal government is making efforts to reduce the country’s dependence on Russian energy as quickly as possible.
dpa, AFP/BU, JD