Gazprom further cuts delivery through Nord Stream 1

DConcerns about the gas supply from Russia are increasing. The state-owned energy company Gazprom has just announced that it will throttle deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline – and justifies this with a lack of technology. Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens), on the other hand, considers the restriction to be a “political decision”. The procedure is not technically justifiable, he said on Wednesday in Berlin.

The throttling of Russian gas supplies does not have to immediately lead to an energy bottleneck in Germany. But that shows how difficult it will still be to fill up the local gas storage tanks to a large extent by winter and then be better prepared for the heating-intensive time. Habeck said there were no supply problems in Germany. How the Gazprom decision will affect Europe as a whole is still open. This will only be clear in two or three days.

A bottleneck or even a stop in gas supplies from Russia will hit some companies particularly hard. According to a new survey, in the event of a delivery stop, 9 percent of the companies that use natural gas would have to stop their production completely and 18 percent would have to cut back significantly. The Institute for Labor Market and Occupational Research (IAB) surveyed companies in a representative sample in May 1980 and has now published the results in the study “Energy crisis and supply freeze for gas: Effects on companies in Germany” in the trade journal “Wirtschaftsdienst”.

Not everyone needs to worry

According to this, every second company surveyed uses natural gas. The proportion hardly differs between energy-intensive and non-energy-intensive companies. Around 70 percent of those surveyed who use gas stated that they would feel little or no impact if they stopped receiving natural gas. More than two-thirds of all companies surveyed therefore need not fear a stop in Russian gas supplies.

Larger farms predict, on average, more severe impacts on their production. Many companies see no way to replace natural gas in the short term. This particularly affects energy-intensive companies and companies in eastern Germany disproportionately.

Although most companies would continue to be supplied even in the event of a delivery stop, there was initially no way around rationing to a certain extent, write the authors Christian Kagerl, Michael Moritz, Duncan Roth, Jens Stegmaier, Ignat Stepanok and Enzo Weber, who all am IAB are active.

Companies raise prices

Even without a complete halt to Russian gas supplies, overall energy costs have risen significantly. This started with a surge in demand last year and also includes the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. According to the new study, 14 percent of the companies surveyed already reported a decline in production as a result of the Ukraine war. 70 percent have been affected by energy price jumps since the beginning of the war. 25 percent of the companies that purchase advance services reported delivery bottlenecks.

Almost every second company (45 percent) has already increased their prices because of the economic consequences of the war. The proportion is above average at 77 percent in the main construction trades, in the areas of transport (75 percent) and hospitality (73 percent) as well as in industry (67 percent).