Germany's State-Owned Energy Company SEFE Increases Gas Reserves to Meet Winter Demand

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On September 16, Germany's state-owned energy company SEFE stated that the company had independently decided to increase its natural gas inventories and further fill the underground gas storage capacity it had already booked. SEFE is engaged in both natural gas import and gas storage businesses, and the storage capacity it controls accounts for approximately one quarter of Germany's total national natural gas storage capacity. This move comes at a stage when gas storage levels are noticeably low before Germany enters winter.

SEFE Storage, a subsidiary of SEFE, is one of Europe's major natural gas storage operators and currently manages a working gas volume of approximately 6 billion cubic meters. Its storage assets include facilities such as Rehden and Jemgum in Germany, and it allocates part of its storage capacity through bidding on the PRISMA platform. What the company increased this time is the actual injection volume of already booked storage capacity, not newly built or expanded storage capacity.

The German federal government is simultaneously studying ways to increase winter natural gas reserves through market mechanisms. Government sources indicate that Germany plans to expand the scale of this autumn's Long Term Options (LTO) tenders, organized by Trading Hub Europe, the regional operator of the German gas market, by pre-locking in market participants' natural gas delivery capacity to provide conditions for calling upon gas sources when needed later. The scale of the planned additional LTO natural gas has not yet been determined.

The German government is also coordinating with state-owned energy companies SEFE and Uniper on further utilizing existing storage capacity. SEFE stated that the filling of already booked storage capacity this time is an independent commercial decision by the company; Uniper stated that the arrangements for the use of its storage assets remain independently decided by the company based on economic conditions. Uniper also stated that the natural gas currently stored by its gas trading business is already higher than that of some other market participants.

As of early September, the average fill level of Germany's natural gas storage facilities was approximately 53%, the lowest for the same period in the 15 years since relevant statistics began. The German energy storage industry association INES estimates that, under technically permissible conditions and with a significant increase in injection rates, Germany's gas storage facilities could reach a maximum fill level of approximately 77% by November 1. The association had previously proposed that market incentives for gas injection should be increased through long-term options, reducing storage-related fees, and other means.

Germany's current gas storage regulations require most storage facilities to reach an 80% fill rate by November 1; designated storage facilities such as Rehden, Bad Lauchstädt, Frankenthal, Hähnlein, Stockstadt, and Uelsen have a target of 45%. By February 1 of the following year, the target fill rate for most storage facilities is 30%. Klaus Müller, head of the German Federal Network Agency, stated that at current inventory levels, reaching the overall standard target of 80% by November 1 is unrealistic, and listed LNG receiving terminals as one of the additional sources of natural gas supply for winter.

In recent years, SEFE has simultaneously expanded its long-term natural gas and LNG supply portfolio. The company's long-term agreement with ConocoPhillips will supply up to 9 billion cubic meters of natural gas over 10 years, and its customer portfolio has an annual natural gas demand of approximately 20 billion cubic meters; in September 2026, SEFE also signed a memorandum of cooperation with XRG and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, covering natural gas, LNG supply, infrastructure, transportation, and market development.