livingston
20×102mm Vulcan
‘Firms will go bust’: Germany prepares for a future without Russian gas Sat 9 Apr 2022
n Germany, they call it “Day X”. Businesses up and down the land are making contingency plans for what is seen as a growing likelihood that Russian gas will stop flowing into Europe’s biggest economy.“It would be a disaster – one which would have seemed almost unthinkable just two months ago, but which right now feels like a very realistic prospect,” the owner of a hi-tech mechanical engineering company in western Germany said. The firm produces everything from battery cases for electric cars to train clutch systems.
The speaker did not want to be named, or for his company to be identified, in part for fear, he said, of appearing to support Russia’s war by making the case that if the gas is turned off, his century-old business “will likely not survive”. But he says he is in a deep quandary and feeling very vulnerable, as he is not only heavily reliant on gas – the cost of which has already soared – but also on metals such as nickel and aluminium, much of which comes from Russia.
Millions of private homes without heat is just one part of the picture. The other, arguably bigger concern, are the manufacturing giants, dependent on gas to operate, such as Thyssenkrupp, BASF and Bayer. And the hundreds of thousands of small and medium sized businesses with which they are interlinked.
The country’s 45 gas storage facilities are only about 26% full. The plan is to increase levels to 80% by the autumn, largely by saving energy now, in order to safeguard supplies for next winter.
A fifth of that is represented by Rehden owned by storage company Astora which is in turn owned by Russian gas producer Gazprom .
‘Firms will go bust’: Germany prepares for a future without Russian gas
Germany is bracing for supplies to be cut by Moscow in retaliation for sanctions or as part of an energy embargo
www.theguardian.com
