Germany Awards Nearly €245 Million in Winter Gas Standby Contracts

Germany has awarded contracts worth nearly €245 million to keep gas supplies available for winter, market operator Trading Hub Europe said on 23 October, according to Reuters.

About €107 million relates to special tenders covering February and March 2027. A further approximately €137 million covers the operator's regular annual tenders, which address potential bottlenecks in the gas network.

The measures come with storage less full than a year earlier. German facilities were at 61.1% of capacity on 21 October, compared with 75.4% on the same date in 2025. That is a gap of 14.3 percentage points.

The contracts are designed to encourage participating companies to retain gas in storage for longer and potentially add more. The announcement concerns reserves kept available if extra gas is needed, rather than confirmation that those reserves have already been drawn down.

Trading Hub Europe said almost all tendered requirements were covered. Some requirements for March 2027 in one L-gas zone were not fully contracted. Reserve procurement is a preparedness measure, not a guarantee of demand, prices or uninterrupted supply.

Sources: Reuters, via MarketScreener; Trading Hub Europe: tender results (23 October 2026).

Rehden gas-storage facility, Germany, 2022 (archival). Foto: Axel Hindemith / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped to 16:9 by Morval Universal; adapted image shared under the same licence. Creator’s requested licence terms. Illustrative archive; no specific contract award at this facility is asserted.