Falling prices, high consumption
Economy warns of gas shortages
1/28/2023 3:31 am
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, energy prices skyrocket. In the meantime, the situation on the market has calmed down. The Grimm business fears that the result will be a gas shortage in the coming winter. Because the lower prices could boost consumption.
In view of falling prices, economics expert Veronika Grimm warned of a gas shortage due to rising consumption. It is “easy to imagine” that, because of the fall in wholesale prices, industry in particular will consume significantly more gas again, she told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. “That would be dangerous in the current situation.”
“Until next winter, it must be a top priority to keep a buffer in order to be able to react to a more tense supply situation,” said the energy expert, who is a member of the Advisory Council. Under certain circumstances, the federal government must set incentives so that gas is saved further.
The economy also referred to the increasing demand from China due to the end of the corona lockdown there. This is one of the reasons why the coming winter will “definitely be challenging”. Grimm predicted that there would only be sufficient capacity for importing liquid gas from next year to ease the situation. The prices would, however, even then “level off at a higher level than before the crisis”.
In the course of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, gas supplies from Russia, which covered 55 percent of German consumption before the war, were completely stopped. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz has stated several times that the gas supply for the winter of 2022/23 is still secured. In December he said that in an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” for the first time for the winter of 2023/24 – albeit with the caveat: “if nothing unforeseen happens”.