Dependence on Russian gas worries Germany. In view of the reduced gas supplies from Russia and the upcoming winter, it is important to use alternative energy sources and to be economical with the available amount of gas. The claim that German gas is being routed to Poland is causing an uproar on Facebook.
“Poland’s gas storage facilities are now almost 100 percent full,” says an article published in early July, which also shows a video of Russian President Vladimir Putin during a speech. The author further claims that Poland would obtain that gas from German storage facilities. Another Facebook post also mentions that the Polish storage facilities were filled with gas from Germany. In fact, gas storage facilities in Poland are currently 98 percent full, according to data from the AGSI platform. However, only a comparatively small part of the gas comes from Germany.
In 2020, Poland imported more than half of its natural gas from Russia, at 55 percent. Around 21 percent came from Germany and 13 percent from Qatar. The country also produces its own natural gas, which amounts to about four billion cubic meters (40 terawatt hours) per year. It is not possible to say exactly how large the proportion of gas from Germany is in Polish storage facilities.
The Polish Ministry of Climate and Environment told the research center “Correctiv” about the current situation that the gas came from different sources: “From LNG terminals, from our own production and from purchases that we make on the European gas market – including purchases from Germany.” A large part of the gas comes from the Polish terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) Swinemünde east of the island of Usedom. Deliveries are mainly received there from Qatar, the USA and from the spot market, an international market where crude oil and gas is auctioned.
Germany obtains gas from Russia via the Yamal pipeline, which leads to Germany via Poland. But this does not necessarily belong to Germany. A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry of Economics explained to ZDFheute how the European gas network works: “The gas can be used by Polish, Italian or companies from another country, but is transported via the pipeline.”
After all, the gas can be traded freely on the German gas market – and can therefore be forwarded or returned from there to other countries, for example if Polish gas traders buy gas in the German network. “Who exactly buys what quantities of gas where and to whom is difficult to understand from the outside. The global markets are mostly anonymous,” said Tobias Federico, managing director of the consulting agency “Energy Brainpool” on ZDFheute. A spokeswoman for the German network operator company told dpa: “We transport the gas that is in the system, it can come from Russia, the Netherlands or Norway.”
According to Federico, it is neither legally nor practically feasible to impose a ban on resale to Poland, for example. “These are private companies.” In addition, it is not possible to say whether the gas routed from Germany to Poland comes exclusively from storage facilities.
The gas storage facilities in Germany are currently about 67 percent full (as of July 26). This is the result of data from the AGSI database of the Gas Infrastructure Europe (GIE) interest group. A year ago, however, the fill level was only around 46 percent. Susanne Ungrad from the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection told “Correctiv”: “The German gas storage facilities were not filled by traders last summer because the prices for the summer months were relatively high and they therefore probably waited until the prices fell again.”
Currently, the majority of storage is 80 percent to 90 percent full. The gas storage facility in Rehden, Lower Saxony, which is the largest in Germany, is currently only 34 percent full. Nevertheless, gas storage facilities in Germany are currently measuring more than four times as much gas as in Poland’s storage facilities – 163,000 terawatt hours (TWh) of gas to 35,900 TWh of gas.
Germany has the largest storage facilities for natural gas in Central and Western Europe. They can currently store a maximum of around 242.98 TWh of gas, Poland only a maximum of 36.41 TWh of gas. This means that the German gas storage facility is around 6.67 times larger than the Polish one and therefore does not fill up as quickly.
Sources: Correctiv, ZDFheute, Gas Infrastructure Europe, Facebook post (1), Facebook post (2), with dpa material