FRANKFURT - Germany will provide an additional 15 billion euros ($15.8 billion) in credit lines for the purchase of gas to replenish storage facilities, news agency dpa reported on Sunday, citing a paper by the Economy Ministry.
The additional credit lines will enable Germany's gas market operator, Trading Hub Europe (THE), to fill up storage levels faster, meeting a key strategic target to ensure Germany can get through the winter should Russian supplies stop altogether.
However the dpa report gave no indication of where the extra supplies might be sourced.
Filling up gas storage facilities has become more challenging for Germany since Russia curtailed the capacity of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline by 60%, jeopardising plans to bring storage levels to 80% by October and 90% by November.
The plans for the credit lines, to be provided by state-lender KfW, have been run past Germany's Finance Ministry and will be presented to the budget committee in the coming week, dpa reported.
The Economy Ministry confirmed the details of the report when contacted by Reuters.
The network operator said on Saturday Germany's gas storage facilities had been filled slightly overnight despite a major drop in Russian deliveries, but it confirmed the situation around gas supplies remained "tense".
($1 = 0.9526 euros)