In the embargo debate, the chemical group BASF made it unmistakably clear that short-term gas savings are not possible.
Image: dpa
Germany urgently needs to save gas. This could soon be worthwhile for companies. The idea of compensating them for savings is just beginning to take shape. Meanwhile, coal imports from Russia are increasing.
What do you do when you run out of gas? Russia continues to reduce its deliveries and justifies this with technical difficulties for which the West is responsible. The German company Uniper announced on Friday that it was getting 60 percent less gas from Russia than it had ordered. France, which is hardly dependent on the raw material from Russia, is now getting nothing, in Italy, which is in a similar situation to Germany, according to the ENI group, half of the Russian gas was missing on Friday. There was therefore speculation in government circles as to whether gas would have to be rationed for some companies.
In Europe, Moscow’s justification is considered to be a pretense. This also applies to the offer to use the finished but never used Nord Stream 2 line as an alternative to the Nord Stream 1 Baltic Sea pipeline. The “Zukunft Gas” association points out that the pipeline through Ukraine is far from being fully utilized. “The Russian side would have the opportunity to compensate for the missing quantities in other ways. We don’t have an answer to the question of why this isn’t happening,” says association leader Timm Kehler.