German consumers could face a tripling of gas prices in the coming months following the acceleration of Russian deliveries to Europe, a senior energy official said.
Moscow reduced gas flow through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 40% last week, citing technical reasons that Berlin rules out as a pretext, causing a four- to six-fold increase in market prices, the head of the German federal networking agency Klaus Müller. .
These “huge price jumps” are unlikely to be fully transmitted to consumers, Müller said, but German citizens had to prepare for a dramatic rise in costs. “It’s possible to double or triple,” he told public broadcaster ARD.
He said the rising costs now appearing on people’s energy bills were the result of rising prices in the gas market last fall.
The German economy ministry announced on Thursday the second of three phases of the energy emergency plan, warning of a high risk of long-term supply shortages as a result of Russia’s systematic suffocation in deliveries. gas.
The so-called “alarm phase” allows utility companies to pass on high gas prices to customers and therefore help reduce demand.
Robert Habeck, the Minister of Economic Affairs, said there was some concern that gas deliveries to Russia would be completely halted after July 13, when Nord Stream 1 is due to close for 10 days to an annual inspection.
Asked by RTL Nachtjournal if he was worried that Vladimir Putin would not reopen the gas tap after the scheduled interruption, Habeck said: “I would be lying if I said that this is not something that worries me.”
Müller said Germany could spend just over two months without Russian gas supplies. “If the storage facilities in Germany were 100% mathematically full … we could do without Russian gas completely … for almost two and a half months and then the storage tanks will be empty,” he said on Thursday. Maybrit Illner program. evening.
To prepare for the supply crisis, Germany had to save gas and quickly diversify its suppliers, he said. “Most scenarios aren’t pretty and mean too little gas at the end of winter, or even, and that’s a very complicated situation, in the fall or winter.”