Fears consumers may have to pay up to three times as much after Nord Stream 1 pipeline flow cut by 40%
\n Berlin
\nGerman consumers could face a tripling of gas prices in the coming months after Russia\u2019s throttling of deliveries to Europe, a senior energy official has said.
\nMoscow reduced the flow of gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 40% last week, citing technical reasons that Berlin dismisses as a pretext, prompting a four- to sixfold rise in market prices, said the head of Germany\u2019s federal network agency, Klaus M\u00fcller.
\nSuch \u201cenormous leaps in price\u201d were unlikely to be passed down entirely to consumers, M\u00fcller said, but German citizens had to brace themselves for dramatically rising costs. \u201cA doubling or tripling is possible,\u201d he told the public broadcaster ARD.
\nHe said the rising costs now showing up on people\u2019s energy bills were the result of higher prices on the gas market last autumn.
\nThe German economic ministry announced the second of three energy emergency plan phases on Thursday, warning of a high risk of long-term supply shortages as a result of Russia systematically choking off gas deliveries.
\nThe so-called \u201calarm phase\u201d enables utility firms to pass on high gas prices to customers and thereby help to lower demand.
\nRobert Habeck, the minister for economic affairs, said there was some concern that there would be a complete stop to Russian gas deliveries after 13 July, when the Nord Stream 1 has to be closed down for 10 days for an annual inspection.
\nAsked by the RTL Nachtjournal programme if he was worried that Vladimir Putin might not switch the gas tap on again after the scheduled interruption, Habeck said: \u201cI would be lying if I said that isn\u2019t something I worry about.\u201d
\nM\u00fcller said Germany could go for just over two months without Russian gas supplies. \u201cIf the storage facilities in Germany were mathematically 100% full \u2026 we could do without Russian gas completely \u2026 for just about two-and-a-half months and then the storage tanks will be empty,\u201d he told the Maybrit Illner programme on Thursday evening.
\nTo prepare for the supply crunch, Germany needed to save gas and rapidly diversify its suppliers, he said. \u201cMost of the scenarios are not pretty and mean either too little gas by the end of the winter, or even \u2013 and that\u2019s a very tricky situation \u2013 in the autumn or winter.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fears consumers may have to pay up to three times as much after Nord Stream 1 pipeline flow cut by 40% Berlin German consumers could face a tripling of gas prices in the coming months after Russia\u2019s throttling of deliveries to Europe, a senior energy official has said. Moscow reduced the flow of gas through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[8959,8958,338,515],"class_list":{"0":"post-267982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-expert","9":"tag-german-gas","10":"tag-russia","11":"tag-supply"},"yoast_head":"\n