Germany Discusses Gas Storage Help With State-Owned Companies

Eurostat’s Q1 snapshot matches the same ranking: United States 57.4 percent, Russia 17.3 percent, Qatar 6.6 percent, Nigeria 6.2 percent. IEEFA adds that Nigeria overtook Qatar and Algeria as Europe’s third LNG supplier in Q1. Algeria remains a major pipeline supplier to Italy and Spain, not a top LNG name this year.

The “all countries” list of physical LNG arriving in Europe in 2026 is therefore: United States, Russia, Nigeria, Qatar, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Norway, Oman, Peru, Mozambique, Equatorial Guinea, Malaysia (occasional), and small residual cargoes. The first three plus a shrinking Qatar book dominate the tonnes.

Pipeline gas is a different map. Norway is still the EU’s largest pipeline supplier (about 54–55 percent of pipeline imports). Algeria is second. Russian pipeline gas now arrives only via TurkStream. Azerbaijan supplies Italy via TAP. Libya still sends a thin stream to Italy. The UK interconnectors swing both ways.

Summer 2026 was the season when pipeline gas regained share because LNG lost the spot contest with Asia.

How much is Europe still buying from Russia?

More than the phase-out speeches imply, and less than 2021.LNG:
The EU took a record 9.89–9.97 million tonnes from Yamal LNG in January–June 2026 — 16 to 18 percent more than H1 2025. That is roughly 13.6 bcm. France (about 3.6 Mt), Belgium (about 2.9 Mt) and Spain (about 2.7 Mt) took the bulk. The Netherlands and Portugal took the rest. Urgewald estimates the H1 bill near €6 billion. In Q1, Russia was still 13 percent of all European LNG and 17.3 percent of EU LNG. Some months later, Belgium took every LNG cargo it received in July from Russia as total Belgian LNG volumes collapsed.

Short-term Russian LNG contracts have been banned since late April 2026. Long-term contracts remain legal until January 1, 2027. Buyers with those contracts used flexibility and make-up rights. They also used Yamal because Qatar was missing and U.S. spot cargoes were expensive.

Pipeline:
Only TurkStream still delivers Russian pipeline gas into the EU — mainly Hungary, Slovakia, Greece and Bulgaria. Flows have been relatively stable, on the order of 11–13 bcm per year, with ACER reporting pipeline imports up 7 percent year-on-year in January–May 2026. Short-term pipeline contracts face tighter limits; long-term pipeline gas is scheduled to end in autumn 2027.

Combined:
ACER puts authorized 2026 Russian contracts (LNG plus pipeline) at 45–55 bcm. Actual imports sit inside that band. Russia’s combined share of EU gas imports in early 2026 has been cited around 12–15 percent, versus nearly 40 percent before 2022. That is a collapse in market power. It is not zero. And the LNG slice rose this year, while the pipeline slice survived through the Balkans.

Why Germany is on the phone with Uniper and SEFE

Germany is the swing problem inside the EU average. It has the largest storage system on the continent (about 247 TWh working gas) and one of the weakest fill rates among large users. The government already lowered the November target to 70 percent and told the market it would not send Trading Hub Europe in as a buyer. Storage bookings look better than physical gas in the ground. Booked capacity is not molecules.

Uniper and SEFE are the two companies that can move the needle without a formal strategic reserve. Both buy LNG and pipeline gas. Both store gas. Both answer, ultimately, to Berlin. Using them is a way to inject without announcing a sovereign stockpile — a stockpile Germany has studied since 2025 and still has not built at scale.The risk is obvious. If Uniper and SEFE start paying up for summer gas, they validate the high price. If they wait, November arrives at 60-something percent and winter weather decides the rest. That is why these talks started after the ceasefire failed. Price is the signal. Storage is the buffer. Germany is short of buffer.

The winter setup

Europe can still get through a normal winter. It cannot pretend this refill was a success. U.S. LNG is the backbone. Russian LNG is the awkward residual that disappears in 2027. Nigerian cargoes filled part of the Qatar hole. Norway and Algeria kept the pipes reasonably full. Asia won a lot of the flexible molecules that used to come to Zeebrugge, Fos and Wilhelmshaven in July.

Germany’s conversation with its state-owned companies is the local version of that continental problem: the market was supposed to refill the barns. The barns are half full. Winter is ten weeks away.