Will the gas last through the winter?

On the German energy crisis

Photo by Ilse Driessen on Unsplash

Background

Germany was until February 2022 happy to rely on Russian gas to keep its houses warm, fire its power stations and serve as a raw material for the chemicals industry.

One Russian invasion of a peaceful neighbour later and those gas supplies seem an awful lot less secure.

Initially, the German government faced domestic pressure to embargo the gas itself. Then the Russians decided that they would slowly turn down supplies, this cutting of the oxygen of German industry. It is a move that costs them money but ramps up the pressure on the German government to moderate its support for Ukraine.