Due to high gas prices in the spring and summer of last year, Europe had to seriously reduce its consumption of natural gas. Thus, according to Eurostat, German industry has reduced its gas consumption by 19%.
At the same time, gas demand in Germany remains at the level of 90 billion cubic meters per year, which is significantly higher than in other European countries (45 times more than in Finland).
Eurostat also reported that between August 2022 and January 2023, gas consumption in European countries decreased by an average of 19.3%. Above all, the demand for blue fuel decreased in Finland (57.3%), Lithuania (47.9%) and Sweden (40.2%).
During the same period, German industrial companies reduced their gas consumption by 7 billion cubic meters – about the same amount of blue fuel per year was consumed by Greece before the crisis. In the first month of this year, gas flaring in Germany’s industrial sector fell by a quarter, which in numerical terms is equivalent to 1.7 billion cubic meters. This represents around 15% of the gas consumption of all EU countries.
Furthermore, according to the German Institute for Economic Research, Germany’s total losses due to the energy crisis amount to around 100 billion euros (about 2.5% of the country’s GDP).
The ongoing negative processes have affected almost all industries in EU countries. The hardest hit were the chemical and steel industries, as well as companies involved in the production of cement and fertilizers.
