Germany’s natural gas storage facilities have reached an occupancy rate of nearly 72%, the Federal Network Agency said on Monday.
“The overall storage level in Germany is 71.99 %,” the agency said in a statement.
Thus, since last Friday, the gas storage capacity has increased by 1.6 percentage points from 70.39%.
According to the regulator, Germany’s largest natural gas storage facility, Rehden, which was previously owned by Russian energy giant Gazprom through its subsidiaries and had less than 1 percent of available natural gas in April, is currently at 48.96% capacity, which is 2.44 percentage points higher than last Friday.
The agency also warned German companies that gas prices may increase significantly.
“Companies and private consumers will have to prepare for significantly higher gas prices,” the agency added.
In June, the European Union adopted new rules according to which the gas storage facilities should be filled up to 80% by November 1, 2022, and up to 90% in subsequent years. There are gas storage facilities in 18 of the 27 EU countries. Germany obliged gas storage operators to fill their facilities to 95% of their capacity by November.
