The Federal Ministry of Economics is concerned about the stop to Russian gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria.
A spokeswoman for Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) said on Wednesday in Berlin that security of supply in Germany is currently guaranteed.
“All in all, the gas flows are currently at a stable level.” However, the situation is being monitored very closely.
No bottlenecks have been identified to date.
“However, we are concerned that deliveries have stopped in European partner countries.
We are in close coordination within the European Union to consolidate the picture of the situation.” The relevant bodies met on Wednesday.
The federal government had warned of serious economic damage due to dependence on Russian gas if Russian supplies failed - it is therefore against a Western embargo.
Gas storage is a good third full
In view of the latest developments in Russia's gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, the Federal Network Agency has also emphasized that the gas supply in Germany is currently secure.
“We are monitoring the situation closely.
The security of supply in Germany is currently still guaranteed,” said a spokesman for the authorities on Wednesday morning in Bonn.
The governments in Poland and Bulgaria announced on Tuesday that Russia intends to stop natural gas deliveries to their countries on Wednesday.
In the morning there was initially no confirmation that these steps had already been taken.
Meanwhile, German natural gas storage facilities are slowly filling up again.
On Monday, the filling level of all German storage was 33.4 percent, as the Federal Network Agency announced in its gas supply management report.
It is currently being stored relatively constantly.
The filling levels are comparable to 2017 and are now significantly higher than in spring 2015, 2018 and 2021, according to the authority.
According to an overview of European storage operators, the filling level has been increasing continuously since April 5th.
For comparison: On March 18, the storage tanks were 24.2 percent full, the lowest value for the winter of 2021/22.
Meanwhile, after Russia stopped supplying gas to Poland and Bulgaria, FDP foreign policy expert Alexander Graf Lambsdorff expects Germany to take the same step in the future.
"As soon as we approach the point where we are independent of Russian supplies, you have to expect something like that, with political gestures like that," Lambsdorff said on Deutschlandfunk on Wednesday.
"But we shouldn't let that intimidate us or make us nervous.
We're on our way to saying goodbye to those deliveries anyway.”
A coal embargo has already been decided, said the member of the Bundestag.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck travels around the world to develop other sources for oil and gas.
"And then the question is indeed: Isn't it a question of shouting a few slogans behind customers who are leaving the store anyway," asked Lambsdorff.
Germany is also preparing for an end to the operation of the Schwedt oil refinery by the Russian company Rosneft.
Preparations have been made at all levels to solve this problem, Habeck said in a video speech distributed on Twitter on Wednesday.
Rosneft has no interest in the Schwedt refinery being supplied with oil from countries other than Russia.
In the event that Rosneft no longer controls the refinery, they want to supply Schwedt with oil via the port of Rostock.
Since the refinery also partly supplies Poland, the country also wants to be included here.
According to Habeck, the remaining twelve percent of Russia's share of oil imports is processed in Schwedt.
Schwedt is connected to an oil pipeline from Russia.
Habeck left open how a change of operator in Schwedt could come about.
During his visit to Warsaw on Tuesday, he said he was looking for alternatives and hoped to be able to find them in a few days.
Overall, an oil embargo against Russia is already manageable.
This would certainly lead to higher prices or regional bottlenecks, said Habeck.
"But it would no longer lead to a complete catastrophe." One is so much further than two months ago.