Should Moscow provide less gas for an extended period or cut deliveries even further, the energy group Uniper SE could have difficulties in fulfilling its contractual obligations to its customers.

"We are now fulfilling the contracts that we have signed with our customers, but I don't know to what extent we can continue to do that," said CEO Klaus-Dieter Maubach in an interview with Bloomberg News in Essen.

"It is a historic moment for us: we have never experienced such a long disruption in gas flows from Russia on this scale."

Since June 15, the largest German buyer of Russian gas has received a lower volume than agreed with Gazprom PJSC.

Moscow has cut deliveries via the Nord Stream pipeline to around 40 percent.

This means that most customers are dependent on finding additional suppliers or tapping into storage capacities.

Uniper obtains more than half of the natural gas it needs from Russia via long-term contracts.

The company is one of the largest natural gas importers in Europe.

It supplies numerous industrial companies and municipal suppliers.

The gas crisis has also weakened Uniper financially.

The former Eon division, which was spun off in 2016 and is majority owned by the Finnish Fortum Oyj, had to write off investments, put important subsidiaries up for sale and take on debts from the parent company and the German state-owned KfW.

In May, S&P Global Ratings downgraded Uniper's credit rating to BBB-, the lowest rating still considered investment grade by many institutional investors.

"There is no liquidity problem at the moment," Maubach said.

However, this may happen if the current situation lasts six to eight months.

Uniper is investing in a terminal for importing liquefied natural gas, which Maubach says should be ready next spring.

However, from Uniper's point of view, the switch to new infrastructure that the federal government is striving for in order to have enough gas in winter could prove to be problematic.

"I understand wanting to get up and running as soon as possible," Maubach said.

“But we also have to be realistic.

People cannot count on something being available in November or December if our plans show that timing is not realistic."

RWE is planning new hires

Should the natural gas reserve fall below a certain threshold, this would mean that Thyssenkrupp AG and many other companies would have to shut down and shut down their plants, as the head of the group, Martina Merz, explained in April.

The head of BASF SE, Martin Brudermüller, warned that without Russian gas, many small and medium-sized companies would be threatened with extinction and that Germany's international competitiveness could quickly decline.

The energy group RWE is reacting to the increased use of coal power planned by the Federal Ministry of Economics by delaying the early retirement of certain employees.

"The foreseeable higher need for personnel will be covered by the fact that employees can only retire later than previously planned via the so-called adjustment allowance," said an RWE spokeswoman for the "Rheinische Post" (Tuesday).

"Furthermore, the need for personnel is to be covered by hiring trained people and from the external labor market." This changed personnel planning in power plants and opencast mines includes several hundred jobs.

Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) wants to reduce the use of gas for power generation and industry in view of reduced Russian deliveries.

More coal-fired power plants are to be used for this.

They are intended to replace electricity generation from power plants fired with natural gas as far as possible.

The filling of the gas storage tanks is to be promoted.