Germany is frantically looking for gas elsewhere in the world, as supplies from Russia are increasingly being compromised. Belgium became one of the most important supply routes in just a few months, with a fifth market share, writes ‘Trends’. “In June, throughput rose to a record,” confirms infrastructure manager Fluxys to the weekly.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Germany wants to get rid of its Russian gas addiction at a rapid pace. By the end of 2024, they want to bring those imports to zero. From 55 percent market share in 2020, the Russian share already slumped to a quarter in early July. This is mainly due to measures by Moscow itself, which sent less gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
Germany has therefore started a race against the clock so that its gas reservoirs are sufficiently full by winter. They should be 95 percent full by the beginning of November, now it is still 66 percent. In the past few months, Germany has already bought gas elsewhere in the world for 15 billion euros.
Next to the Netherlands and Norway, Belgium is one of the most important suppliers, writes ‘Trends’. The supply of gas from Belgium increased exponentially, confirms Ulrike Platz, the spokesman for the German network operator Bundesnetzagentur. “Over the past few months, we have received a lot of gas via the LNG terminals in Rotterdam and Zeebrugge. Last year, 0.2 terawatt hours of gas flowed through Belgian pipelines to Germany in June. This year it was 24 terawatt hours in the same month. As far as we know, this does not pose any problems for the Belgian pipeline network.”
