Overview
- Storage operators' group INES reports a start-of-season fill of about 75 percent, well below recent years and behind many EU peers.
- INES modeling shows storages would be depleted by mid-January in an extreme-cold winter like 2010, while warm or average winters would keep levels above the 30 percent legal minimum on February 1.
- The Bundesnetzagentur and Economy Minister Katherina Reiche describe the situation as manageable, pointing to new LNG terminals and pipeline supplies as buffers.
- Refilling lagged over summer and fell short of INES’s September expectation of 81 percent by November due to higher consumption and weaker intra‑EU injections.
- INES faults the government for not deploying promised fill instruments, and reporting notes EU storage rules were eased at Berlin’s urging, with authorities able to order emergency purchases if the statutory minimum comes under threat.