“Approach you with further tasks in connection with securing the energy supply”.
(Photo: Reuters)
Berlin The Federal Ministry of Economics reserves the right to commission further gas purchases. This emerges from a letter from State Secretary for Economic Affairs Patrick Graichen to the company Trading Hub Europe GmbH (THE), which is available to the Handelsblatt.
The letter to THE managing directors states that the ministry will “approach you with further tasks related to securing the energy supply”. The first steps include “the immediate establishment of a natural gas reserve based on additional imports” of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The Federal Ministry of Economics had already made 1.5 billion euros available to THE for the purchase of LNG at the end of February. The gas is stored and is intended to help ease the supply situation.
The Federal Ministry of Finance, in turn, had made LNG procurement possible at short notice. A letter from Florian Toncar, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, to the President of the Bundestag Bärbel Bas dated March 1 states that, at the request of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, his house had given its approval for unscheduled expenditure of up to 1.5 billion euros.
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The Bundestag was not informed. State Secretary Toncar justifies this in his letter by saying that despite the amount of the unscheduled expenditure, an exception to the obligation to inform the Budget Committee of the Bundestag was “necessary for compelling reasons”.
At THE it was said on Thursday that after the contract had been awarded, they had “procurement started immediately”. This is based on a competitive process. The planned quantities will probably be able to be received, THE further announced.
THE becomes a central figure in gas procurement
As can be seen from the letter from Economic State Secretary Graichen to THE managing directors Torsten Frank and Sebastian Kemper, it will not be a one-off action. “We assume that further measures will be necessary in the short and medium term,” Graichen said in the letter, which is dated February 28.
As a result of this process, THE is increasingly changing from a service provider for gas network operators to a central player in the gas industry. The company is responsible for the market area for the whole of Germany and must ensure that natural gas supply and natural gas demand are continuously balanced. To this end, THE buys and sells natural gas.
The tasks of the company are laid down in the Energy Industry Act (EnWG). The large-scale purchase of natural gas from federal budget funds to increase security of supply has not yet been one of the legally defined tasks. THE is financed from the network charges paid by the gas consumers. Trading Hub Europe shareholders are companies such as Open Grid Europe (OGE), Gasunie Germany and Thyssengas.
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The Ministry of Economic Affairs also upgrades THE significantly elsewhere. At the same time, the company plays a central role in the new gas storage law, which is to be passed by the Bundestag on Friday. At the heart of the law are specifications for storage levels at fixed dates throughout the year. If the industry itself does not reach the filling levels, THE will procure the missing gas in the future.
In his letter, State Secretary for Economic Affairs Graichen assures THE of considerable room for manoeuvre. The federal government will bear “all economic and legal risks as well as all costs in connection with the tasks contractually assumed by THE now and in the future,” writes the State Secretary for Economic Affairs.
When asked whether the Federal Ministry of Economics would provide the company with additional funds for gas purchases beyond the 1.5 billion euros, THE said on Thursday that this was not expected at the moment. The Federal Ministry of Economics initially left a corresponding request unanswered on Thursday.
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