BRUSSELS/BONN (dpa-AFX) - For the first time in almost four weeks, the filling level of German gas storage facilities has risen slightly overall. As emerged on Friday from data from the European gas storage association GIE, the storage facilities were 87.3 percent full at the end of the gas day Wednesday. The fill level was thus 0.1 percentage points above the previous day's value.
The main reason for this was probably the comparatively mild weather. Because consumption fell as a result and imports continued at the same time, gas traders stored more gas than was withdrawn. According to the German Weather Service, the average temperature was 5.4 degrees on Tuesday and 6.2 degrees on Wednesday. The observation coincides with earlier data from the storage association Initiative Energien Speichern (Ines), according to which gas demand picks up when average temperatures are six degrees or lower.
The president of the Federal Network Agency, Klaus Müller, spoke of good news in a message on the short message service Twitter. "This means that Germany is well prepared for the festive season. Attentive handling of gas remains nevertheless correct," he warned.
The last time gas was stored on the bottom line in Germany was on November 27. Since then the filling quantity decreased - as usual in the winter. Last week, it had fallen by more than one percentage point on each of four consecutive days, mainly because of the cold temperatures.
Germany's gas consumption is mainly covered by imports. On Wednesday, according to the Federal Network Agency, larger volumes came from Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland and Austria./tob/DP/mis
