Shortage situation not foreseeable
DIW calls for an end to the gas emergency plan
February 19, 2024, 5:14 a.m
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Shortly after the start of the war in Ukraine, the situation on the gas market became tense. The German Institute for Economic Research reports that it has now calmed down again. Emergency measures are therefore no longer necessary.
Two years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the start of the subsequent energy crisis, the situation on the gas market has eased again, according to the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). “There is no gas shortage and it is not foreseeable,” said Claudia Kemfert, research director of the DIW energy department, to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
“It’s time to repeal the gas emergency plan.” According to an analysis by DIW, the planned expansion of LNG import capacities is no longer necessary to this extent. The federal government’s plans for the construction of additional LNG terminals are excessive: “The oversized LNG infrastructure expansion is not necessary to avoid a potential gas shortage and should therefore not be pursued further,” says the analysis. For the winter of 2023/24, there was “at no time the risk of a gas shortage”.
The current filling levels of the gas storage facilities in Germany and the EU would be sufficient to supply both Germany and Eastern Europe adequately, even in the possibly still very cold months of February and March 2024. It can therefore be assumed that the capacities can be completely filled again at the beginning of winter 2024/25.