Germany orders SEFE to buy more gas to shore up winter reserves (updated)

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30/09/2026 08:08

recasts with background, ministry statement throughout, changes dateline to Berlin
BERLIN, Sept 30 (Reuters) - Germany has told state-owned SEFE to buy and store additional natural gas at the start of the heating season, the company said on Wednesday, marking a rare direct intervention to bolster reserves in response to geopolitical risks.
SEFE, short for Securing Energy for Europe, said it had been instructed to procure and store 8 TWh of gas by December 15. 
The volume is less than 1% of Germany's annual gas consumption, which stood at 864 TWh last year, according to official data.
Economy Minister Katherina Reiche, in coordination with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, ordered the purchases because of ongoing geopolitical risks, her ministry said on Wednesday.
Europe is heading into winter with its lowest inventories in years. Germany's storage facilities are about 58% full, unusually low for this time of year.
Having weaned themselves off cheap Russian gas after Moscow's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, European nations are scrambling to rebuild depleted reserves amid disruptions to Middle East supplies.
Reiche has previously relied on market incentives to shore up gas storage, avoiding direct state purchases that stoked prices in the past.
Other market participants are expected to fulfill their obligations to store gas for the winter, a ministry spokesperson added in a statement.  
"The steps to be initiated by SEFE are therefore also intended to send a clear signal to other companies," she said.
European gas prices have more than doubled this year after the Iran conflict disrupted a major LNG supply route through the Strait of Hormuz.

 (Reporting by Ludwig Burger and Christian Kraemer, writing by Thomas Seythal, editing by Miranda Murray and Elaine Hardcastle)
 ((ludwig.burger@thomsonreuters.com))