Germany's Storage Lobby Presses Berlin for Fee Cuts as November Fill Target Slips Away
Industry group Ines is pressing Berlin for network fee discounts to spur injections as Germany's November storage target looks unattainable.
Germany's gas storage association Ines called on the government on Thursday (2026-09-03) to apply a full discount on network fees for storage facilities, pressing for immediate incentives to accelerate injections before winter. ICE Endex TTF front-month gained 3.41% on Tuesday (2026-09-08), settling at €75.83/MWh — making late-season buying more expensive for any operator still short on volumes.8
A day before the Ines request, the head of economic think tank DIW told Montel on Wednesday (2026-09-02) that Germany was "not sufficiently managing" its gas storage risk and that policymakers were not doing enough to address it. The institute described the problem as "massively underestimated" and said significant shortfall scenarios were "not implausible."7
Germany's government offered a more sanguine assessment on Friday (2026-08-28), saying gas operators were actively filling storage facilities and citing improved LNG market conditions as Asian demand softened. Uniper, which holds a significant portion of Germany's reserved storage capacity, said it had filled 70% of its contracted volumes by Monday (2026-08-24), Reuters reported.6,5
But the trajectory for overall German storage is harder to square with those reassurances. DW reported in August that the November 1 target of 71% fill had become "virtually unattainable." Injection rates were running at 0.5 terawatt-hours per day, and DW's analysis showed that even reaching 1.2 TWh per day, more than double that pace, would still leave Germany significantly short of target by November.4
The season began from an unusually weak position. Europe entered the refill period with gas stores only 28% full following a prolonged winter, according to senior Equinor executives cited by Oilprice.com. Gas Infrastructure Europe data, also cited by Oilprice.com, showed German storage at 30.6% full as of Wednesday (2026-05-27), down from 38.65% at the equivalent point in 2025. Dutch reserves fell to just 5.8% by the end of that winter, Oilprice.com reported, the lowest level in a decade, showing how sharply northwest European storage depleted across the heating season.2,3
Part of the strain traces to LNG pricing. European gas prices had risen around 40% from pre-conflict levels, driven by disruptions through the Strait of Hormuz and missile attacks on Qatari LNG production that removed roughly 20% of global LNG supply, Oilprice.com reported. That pushed up the cost of Atlantic LNG deliveries throughout the injection season, raising the price of building stocks at every stage.3
Uniper's chief executive Michael Lewis raised the alarm in May. "If we don't fill the gas storage facilities quickly, we'll have a problem next winter," Lewis told a German newspaper. An analyst at Montel's German Energy Day in Dusseldorf on Thursday (2026-05-21) was less categorical, telling delegates that Germany would likely reach sufficient fill levels in time — but at a meaningfully higher cost if refilling continued to lag, as late-season buyers typically face tighter market terms.3,1
The EU framework sets the outer limit. Member states are required to target fill levels of 80% to 90% by early winter, and Europe's overall storage was running at 35% to 37% in late May, well below the 50% seasonal norm, Oilprice.com noted. Germany's current injection trajectory risks non-compliance with those requirements if the pace cannot accelerate sharply through September and October.2
Despite Tuesday's (2026-09-08) TTF price gain, supply-side signals are mixed. Contrarian positioning in ICE Endex TTF front-month contracts leans bearish on supply factors, a divergence that reflects uncertainty about how quickly Atlantic LNG cargoes materialise at northwest European terminals. Berlin has yet to respond formally to the Ines fee-discount proposal. Daily injection rates are the first number to move.8,7