Energy Crisis Tracker Real-Time Statistics on Europe's Gas Supplies
“How much natural gas is flowing through pipelines to Europe? How full are gas storage facilities? And how much gas are Germans consuming? Keep your eye on the data with our live tracker.”
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Spiegel
By Holger Dambeck, Lisa Goldschmidtböing, Frank Kalinowski, Ferdinand Kuchlmayr, Aída Márquez, Dawood Ohdah, Marcel Pauly, Matthias Stahl und Patrick Stotz
19.12.2022
How Dependent Is Europe on Russian Gas?
Only a few European countries produce a significant amount of natural gas themselves.
Almost all rely on imports, mainly by pipeline from Russia, Norway and Algeria. In addition, there are imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from various countries around the world. Deliveries are usually made by special tankers bound for ports with LNG terminals. The share of imports from Russia has fallen in recent months, but LNG deliveries have increased overall.
Dependence on Russia has been particularly high in Eastern Europe and Germany in recent years.
These countries are often located directly along Russian pipelines and usually don’t have their own LNG terminals or pipelines to other major gas exporters like Norway or Algeria. In absolute quantities, Germany has recently consumed the largest total volume of Russian gas of any European country.
How Does Gas Get to Europe?
Until recently, four main routes led from Russia to the European Union.
Recently, the focus was primarily on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which runs from Russia beneath the Baltic Sea to Lubmin, Germany, near the city of Greifswald. Pipeline operator Gazprom initially throttled deliveries in mid-June 2022 to 40 percent of normal capacity, purportedly due to technical problems. Then, following annual maintenance in July, Gazprom further reduced flows to 20 percent of capacity. At the end of August, Russia once again interrupted delivery, again for alleged maintenance work, and has not recommenced deliveries through the pipeline since then. In late September, a large leak in the pipeline was discovered. It is unclear if deliveries through the pipeline will ever resume.
In addition to Nord Stream 1, Russian gas supplies were also delivered
through the Yamal-Europe pipeline running through Belarus and Poland, and the Progress and Soyuz pipelines through Ukraine, as well as the Turkstream via Turkey in the south. No gas has been flowing through the Yamal pipeline since mid-May, after Russia halted deliveries. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is imported through various port terminals, most of which are located in Western Europe.
How Full Are Germany's Gas Storage Facilities?
Gas storage facilities serve as important reserves for the winter, but also as interim storage for large LNG deliveries.
If all of Germany’s storage facilities were filled to capacity, their gas volume of slightly less than 250,000 gigawatt-hours could not even cover a quarter of Germany’s annual demand, which was around 1 million gigawatt hours in 2021. To get through the winter unscathed, Germany thus needs not only for its storage facilities to be as full as possible, but also continuous supplies from pipelines or LNG terminals.
How Much Gas Does Germany Consume?
The amount of gas burned by households and industry depends on two primary factors:
the weather and the price of gas. The situation on the electricity market can also influence gas demand. During periods of low sunlight and low winds, gas-fired plants must be fired up to meet the electricity demand. The weather at the beginning of 2022 was significantly milder than the previous year, thus requiring less heat. In addition, people cut back on their use of gas, largely in industry – a direct response to the sharp increase in gas prices. That’s why consumption in 2022 was almost consistently below the average of previous years.
The beginning of the 2022/2023 heating season has made clear that private households and commercial customers are also using less natural gas.
Almost every week, they are consuming less gas than in weeks from the previous years in which temperatures were comparable.Haz que se destaque
How the efforts to save gas have developed over time is shown by the following comparison of actual consumption with expected consumption given the current temperatures.
Since as early as spring 2022, Germany has been consuming significantly less gas than in the same weather conditions in previous years. Most recently, the savings have been around 15 to 25 percent.
How Much Money Does Russia Generate with Its Gas Exports?
Overall, Russia has supplied less gas to Europe in recent months than in previous years.
Still, revenues from gas exports have increased. This is due to the sharp increase in global market prices. The main cause of the turbulence on the gas market is the conflict over Ukraine, which Russia has been waging as a war of aggression since February 2022.
How Have Gas Prices Developed for New Customers?
Recent turbulence hasn’t just been reserved for global gas prices.
Private households in Germany have also been affected. This has become particularly noticeable for new customers, for whom the average price per kilowatt hour has increased significantly since fall 2021. Further price jumps followed Russia’s attack on Ukraine and due to reduced gas deliveries starting in June 2022.