{
  "id": 60613,
  "title": "For times of crisis: Reiche introduces new financing for gas reserve",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/02/fur-krisenzeiten-reiche-bringt-neue-finanzierung-fur-gasreserve-ins",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-02T22:10:05.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/deutschland/fuer-krisenzeiten-reiche-bringt-neue-finanzierung-fuer-gasreserve-ins-spiel/100244544.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche is proposing a new financing method for the planned strategic gas reserve, instead of a levy on gas customers. The CDU politician stated in a video interview with the German Press Agency that the financing issue is still open. Levying charges would burden all those who purchase gas. \"There are two financing options,\" Reiche said. \"One is a levy, the second is financing from the budget.\" Perhaps a mixed model could be used. This would need to be discussed within the coalition and also with the market. Reiche stated that she does not want to burden companies that are already \"in competitive difficulties\" further.\n\nThe reason for a state gas reserve is as follows: \"We are seeing in the current crisis in the Middle East, the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz, how volatile, how susceptible to high price fluctuations the global energy markets are, including the gas markets,\" Reiche said. Storing gas is primarily the responsibility of the industry, which is committed to it. \"However, there can be crisis situations where energy flows to Germany are disrupted or do not occur due to extreme scenarios. We have already seen physical attacks. Do you remember the pipelines in the Baltic Sea?\" Reiche said. She also referred to the attack on the power infrastructure at the beginning of the year in Berlin. \"In order to be protected against such extreme scenarios, we plan to allocate a portion of our storage facilities to a state reserve, separate from the market.\"\n\nThe procedure is now being prepared, and by the end of this year, corresponding plans should be passed through Parliament, Reiche said.\n\nVolume and Levy\nA spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy announced at the beginning of July that the gas reserve to secure supplies in exceptional crisis situations should have a volume of 24 billion kilowatt-hours - this would correspond to around 10 percent of German storage capacity. For financing the gas reserve, a levy for consumers was planned, the spokeswoman said at the time. However, this should be significantly lower than a now abolished gas storage levy.\n\nA state gas reserve for crisis situations is fundamentally sensible, but financing through a levy would again mean additional burdens for consumers, Thorsten Storck, an energy expert at Verivox, said. The comparison portal estimates the expenditure for building the reserve for an average single-family home with a gas consumption of 20,000 kilowatt-hours per year at around 42 euros. In addition, annual operating costs of around 5 euros would arise. The portal assumed costs of 1.5 billion euros for setting up a gas reserve.\n\nGas storage facilities are intended as a buffer\nGas storage facilities are a buffer against bottlenecks in the gas supply. Terminals on the North and Baltic Seas, where liquefied natural gas (LNG) arrives, have also become important, in addition to the main supply through Norwegian pipeline gas. Currently, the filling level of the gas storage facilities is 47 percent. The cause of this is, on the one hand, the large withdrawal at the end of the previous winter, and on the other hand, significantly rising gas prices, the Initiative Energien Speichern (INES) announced at the beginning of July. The higher the gas price in summer, the less it pays off for large traders to fill the storage facilities. INES scenarios show that a storage filling level of 76 percent as of November 1 would be sufficient to ensure the gas supply at normal or warm winter temperatures. However, the situation would be different in the case of an exceptionally cold winter.",
  "summary": "The Ministry of Economics is planning a state natural gas reserve for crisis situations. But who is going to pay for it?",
  "key_points": [
    "Bundeswirtschaftsministerin Katherina Reiche proposes new funding options for strategic gas reserve",
    "Two funding options: additional charge on gas consumers or budget financing",
    "Reserve aims to ensure energy flows during extreme scenarios, with 24 billion kWh capacity"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}