Germany begins withdrawing gas from underground storage facilities amid shortage: Report

Germany reportedly started withdrawing gas from underground storage facilities (UGS) on Tuesday, July 12. The data from Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) has revealed that gas withdrawal from Germany's UGS facilities reached 85.5 million cubic meters while the injection level remains at 72.6 million cubic meters, TASS reported. The withdrawal of gas from underground storage facilities comes at a time when Russia's energy giant Gazprom has stopped the supply of gas through the Nord Stream pipeline for annual maintenance. 

Since April, it is the first time that the gas withdrawals from storage facilities in Germany surpassed injections into them. The report claimed that withdrawal of gas from storage facilities also took place in Austria's OMV, Norway's Equinor and Uniper. As per the news report, the total gas reserves in Europe's storage facilities increased to 62.57% as of 12 July, which shows a reduction of 1.5 percentage points from the average for this date in the past five years, as per the TASS report. The storage facilities in Europe have around 67 billion cubic meters and daily injection rates continue to remain two times lower than what it used to be before Notably, Russia-owned Gazprom stopped the supply of gas through Nord Stream, citing maintenance and repairs. 

Gazprom shut down Nord Stream 1 pipeline for maintenance 

Gazprom shut down the Nord Stream 1 pipeline which is the main route for supplying gas from Russia to Europe on July 11. The Russian energy giant has suspended the operation of the gas pipeline for 10 days for maintenance. German officials have expressed concern that Russia might not start supplying gas to full capacity to Europe citing a technical reason.

Earlier in June, Gazprom had reduced the supply of gas through Nord Stream 1 pipeline to Germany by 60% citing technical issues over equipment that Siemens Energy in Canada did not return to Moscow due to sanctions imposed against Russia. According to AP, German leaders had refuted claims of Russia for a reduction in gas supply announced in June calling the decision political in a bid to further increase the energy prices. 

Canada allows return of repaired Nord Stream 1 turbines to Germany

Meanwhile, the Canadian government on Sunday, 10 July, announced permitting "a time-limited and revocable permit for Siemens" to return the repaired Nord Stream 1 turbines to Germany. Canadian Minister of Natural Resources, Jonathan Wilkinson, said that the decision has been taken to support Europe's ability to access reliable and affordable energy. He noted that the absence of natural gas supply will affect the economy of Germany and Germans could be unable to heat their homes during winter. It is pertinent to note here that EU nations have been working to end dependency on Russian energy ever since Moscow began its military offensive in Ukraine. 

(With inputs from AP, Image: AP)