Skip to content
You can now search across every topic, entity and event.What's new
European Energy Markets
26JUN

Germany net-withdrew 459 GWh on 13 April

3 min read
13:51UTC

Four days into the injection season the EU's largest storage estate is still drawing down, not refilling.

EconomicDeveloping
Key takeaway

Germany is still emptying, not filling, and cannot accelerate its way out later.

Bundesnetzagentur-fed AGSI+ data shows Germany recorded a net gas storage withdrawal of 459 GWh on the 13 April gas day, leaving national storage at 23.27%, fractionally below the 23.32% posted on 12 April 1. Four days into what should have flipped to sustained injection, the country's cavern network was still running a net draw.

German injection capacity is fixed at 4,274 GWh/day against 7,047 GWh/day of withdrawal; the asymmetry means the pipelines can empty the caverns faster than they can fill them. A late start is not recoverable by acceleration, only by running closer to the injection ceiling for longer, which leaves no headroom for the next supply shock.

The EU aggregate is still on pace against the reduced November target , but it is running on periphery injection while the anchor drifts. Bruegel's refill estimate assumed Germany at net-injection by mid-April; that assumption has not held.

For winter-26 gas portfolios, this is the only domestic data point on the calendar that matters as much as the Hormuz ceasefire call ; it is also the only one that cannot be hedged with a headline.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Gas storage works like a giant underground tank that Europe fills during summer when demand is low, then draws down during winter when heating demand is high. By early April the heating season should be winding down and the refilling should have started. Germany has the biggest gas storage network in the EU, so its behaviour sets the pace for the whole bloc. On 13 April it was still drawing gas out (459 GWh net), not putting it in, even though the storage season officially began on 1 April. That is a problem because Germany's filling equipment can only push gas in so fast. A late start cannot be made up by filling faster later. The tank is already unusually empty at 23.27%, about half the level it would be at this time in a normal year.

Deep Analysis
Root Causes

Germany's storage deficit has two structural causes distinct from the current Hormuz crisis. First, the Nord Stream pipeline destruction in September 2022 removed roughly 55 bcm per year of German-destined capacity, forcing Germany onto spot LNG and Norwegian pipeline at premium prices and preventing the pre-winter fill rates achievable before 2022.

Second, Germany's cavern storage geology (predominantly salt caverns with fast-cycle capability) means its working gas volumes are disproportionately small relative to its consumption. France and Italy hold a higher share of depleted-field storage with larger working volumes; Germany's estate is sized for rapid response, not strategic reserve depth.

What could happen next?
  • Risk

    If Germany remains in net withdrawal through late April, EU aggregate storage will miss the trajectory required for 80% by November, even with the target reduced from 90% (ID:2355).

  • Consequence

    Industrial demand curtailment orders in Germany, the EU's largest manufacturing economy, would amplify Cefic's reported 37Mt capacity loss by depressing output further in chemicals, steel, and glass.

First Reported In

Update #2 · TTF EUR 42 as Russian LNG ban enters range

Gas Infrastructure Europe· 15 Apr 2026
Read original
Different Perspectives
EU carbon and storage regulators
EU carbon and storage regulators
EUA carbon broke EUR 81/tonne on 13 July as the ETS Market Stability Reserve's scheduled withdrawals met fresh fuel-switching demand from France's nuclear curtailment. Brussels' mandatory storage-fill rule kept German and French injection running regardless of the TTF swings, the mechanism working as designed four years after the 2022 shock.
Equinor
Equinor
Equinor returned its Asgard field from maintenance on 11 July, lifting Gassco's exit nominations to 319.8 mcm/day just as TTF round-tripped on Hormuz risk. The restart gave Norway spare pipeline capacity to help Europe absorb the gas rally without drawing down storage, reinforcing its role as the post-2022 swing supplier.
Germany
Germany
Germany briefly became the cheaper leg of the FR-DE spread on 12 July as French reactors went offline, while its own storage injection tripled to 723 GWh on 11 July under the EU's mandatory fill rule. Berlin's CCGT fleet absorbed the extra load at a time when EUA's climb past EUR 81 is raising its own marginal cost too.
EDF
EDF
EDF took Chooz, Golfech and Bugey fully offline on 12 July under river-cooling discharge limits, then secured a temperature exemption for Bugey to 20 July rather than wait for the rivers to cool. The government's willingness to relax the environmental ceiling shows French grid security now outweighs the permit breach when reactor hardware itself is undamaged.
Storage and injection-pace desk
Storage and injection-pace desk
EU storage sat at 51.1% on 8 July, still running below the pace needed for an 80% November target, and the JKM-TTF Asia premium of roughly USD 1.4-2.4/MMBtu was already pulling marginal cargoes east before Qatar's withdrawal compounded the gap. October's top-up remains the binding constraint, not this week's price level.
EDF / France
EDF / France
EDF added Chooz to its heat-curtailment watch list as a precaution against the second heat dome peaking 9-14 July, alongside standing warnings at Blayais, Bugey, Golfech and Saint-Alban. No output cut has been confirmed at any site as of 10 July.