Germany not planning strategic gas reserve, economy ministry says

FRANKFURT (Reuters) -Germany is not planning to set up a national gas reserve as its recent legislation changing required filling levels for the coming winters will encourage the private sector to ensure supply security, an economy ministry spokesperson said on Tuesday.

Since the energy crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European Union countries have turned to increased storage to protect against supply disruption.

Germany is mainland Europe's biggest gas consumer and last month German pipeline lobby group FNB proposed a new approach to gas storage, including a permanent national reserve.

"There are currently no considerations by the economy ministry pertaining to this (a strategy storage)," the spokesperson said in a written reply to an enquiry by Reuters, adding supply was secure overall.

Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that Germany was looking at whether to build up a strategic store of gas, citing unnamed sources.

Germany's new coalition government aligned domestic rules with anticipated changes to European Union regulations that require gas storage facilities to be 80% filled by November 1 to ensure enough supply for the winter, giving more flexibility than the EU's previous 90% capacity filling requirement, among a range of other measures.

German utilities operating gas storage facilities include Uniper, the SEFE group, VNG Gasspeicher and RWE.

The German economy ministry is mindful that any additional state moves could drive up the costs for consumers, the spokesperson said.

German gas stockpiles last stood at 45.8% vis-a-vis the EU's 53.8%, data from storage group GIE showed. The metric was well down from 76.8% a year ago.

(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Susan Fenton)