Dusseldorf German industrial companies are preparing intensively for an impending gas shortage in Germany. The chemical industry, as the largest industrial consumer, wants to further reduce demand in the coming weeks with technical savings. However, the industry considers its options to be limited without serious production cuts occurring.
This is shown by a current survey of industrial companies by the Handelsblatt. According to this, these are currently still being supplied in full with the required gas despite the shutdown of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. However, chemical manufacturers such as Covestro are also working on converting to oil-based generators for generating process steam, and BASF also wants to convert an entire power plant to oil. Covestro alone expects to save several hundred gigawatt hours of gas from the current projects.
For the Leverkusen-based plastics manufacturer, one of the largest German chemical companies, this is a tour de force. But in view of the annual consumption of 100 terawatt hours of gas in the entire chemical industry – i.e. 100,000 gigawatt hours – it is only a small contribution.
The chemical association VCI estimates that the entire industry can save two to three terawatt hours of gas through technical changes. Nothing more is possible because the shelves have been trimmed for energy efficiency for years. “For our companies, we are currently doing everything we can to leverage the very last potential,” says Wolfgang Grosse Entrup, Managing Director of the VCI.
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Further savings could only be made by reducing or doing without production. “In order to avoid this, all social forces must now contribute to saving gas, in addition to industry,” says Grosse Entrup.
Chemical industry: Private households should make a contribution
In other words, from the point of view of the industry, private households must now also make a significant contribution to reducing gas consumption. The VCI does not speak of a preference for industry over households, but calls for a “joint social effort” with a view to the upcoming winter.
At the same time, the industry underscores the impending economic upheaval in the event of a gas shortage. Chemical production is closely networked with each other and with the processing industries: If the delivery from a large basic chemical manufacturer fails, this triggers a chain reaction among specialty chemical companies and their customers.
According to BASF, it has reduced its gas requirements since March, for example through technical optimizations in the production network and the switch to alternative fuels wherever it says this is possible. The complete substitution of gas with oil is being examined for the power plant at BASF’s major East German site in Schwarzheide.
The VCI expects that the majority of these so-called fuel switch projects will only unfold their full effect in the coming months. The association complains that the conversion to oil operation is being slowed down by slow approvals. The local authorities are hesitant because of the emission control laws.
However, many chemical companies already see the point at which a loss of large quantities of gas would have a direct impact on production. The Cologne-based Lanxess AG only speaks of “very small potential savings in normal operation”. In the event of a gas shortage, the group would therefore react by reducing individual operations, for which a detailed plan has been drawn up.
Munich-based Wacker Chemie could compensate for the consequences of lower gas supplies “to a certain extent”. However, the integrated production has already been optimized for maximum efficiency. Wacker Chemie’s plants are primarily located in southern Germany – the region that could be most severely affected by a sustained suspension of deliveries from Russia.
The East German chemical park is switching from gas to oil where technically possible.
(Photo: dpa)
Industrial companies in the west and north are mainly supplied with gas from the North Sea. Forwarding these quantities to the south is considered technically difficult. But Wacker firmly believes that it will be able to fully operate its power plant at the Bavarian site in Burghausen even in the event of an aggravated supply shortage. Because this plant has been classified as systemically important for stabilizing the high-voltage power grid for several years.
Under the pressure of high gas prices, many chemical companies have been exhausting all possibilities to reduce gas consumption for many months. In the North Rhine-Westphalian chemical parks of the operator Currenta, individual smaller throttling is currently being examined and the revision of plants, which was only planned later in the year, is being brought forward.
In the Leuna chemical park – one of the largest chemical sites in Germany – natural gas consumption is currently a good third below the usual values. Another restriction is only at the expense of production, says Christof Günther, head of the chemical park operator Infraleuna.
High energy costs put European locations at a disadvantage
Günther is not only worried about the high gas costs. This is because electricity prices are currently skyrocketing as a result. The manager fears that production will permanently shift to other regions of the world. “Compared to producers in the USA and Asia, the energy-intensive European chemical industry currently has a clear competitive disadvantage,” says Günther.
Expensive gas and expensive electricity – this combination could bring companies to a point where some chemical production in Germany is no longer economical.
More: These are the four scenarios for the future of Nord Stream 1